Crafting Content Policies: Lessons from the Online Safety Trenches

If the internet is a global village, content policies are its ever-evolving social contract.

And believe me, negotiating that contract is no easy feat.

As a Trust & Safety professional with years of experience in the field, I've seen firsthand the challenges that come with developing and implementing content policies for digital platforms. That's why I, along with my colleagues at the Integrity Institute, decided to compile our collective knowledge into a comprehensive whitepaper on best practices for content policy development.

Our goal was simple: to create a resource that could guide both newcomers and seasoned professionals through the complex process of crafting and launching effective content policies. 

Having worked on policy teams at major tech companies, digital marketplaces, and startups, I know how daunting this task can be, especially for smaller platforms or startups just beginning to grapple with content moderation issues.

Let me share some key insights from our whitepaper that I believe are crucial for anyone working in this field.

Laying the Groundwork: Research and Development

One of the first things we emphasize in our whitepaper is the importance of establishing a solid foundation before you even start writing policies. 

This means:

✔️ Establishing first principles: What's your platform's stance on free speech versus content moderation? How will you approach automated moderation versus human review? These foundational questions will shape your entire approach.

✔️ Auditing existing policies: If you're not starting from scratch, take a good look at what you already have. What's working? What isn't? Where are there gaps?

✔️ Benchmarking against industry standards: Don't reinvent the wheel if you don't have to. Look at what other platforms are doing and learn from their successes (and failures).

✔️ Considering legal compliance: This is crucial. Your policies need to comply with local laws and regulations, which can vary significantly across different regions. We highly recommend collaborating with your legal team on this, or working with a legal consultant if you’re a smaller platform without in-house counsel. 

Remember, this groundwork isn't just busywork. It's the bedrock upon which you'll build all your policies. Take the time to get it right.

Building Consensus: Cross-Functional Buy-In

In my experience, one of the biggest challenges in policy development isn't the writing itself – it's getting everyone aligned.

Here are some key strategies for achieving cross-functional buy-in.

✔️ Create a Policy Launch Standard Operating Procedure: This document should clearly outline the steps involved in developing and launching a new policy. Circulate it to your cross-functional stakeholders and solicit feedback to ensure alignment and set expectations. If you’re not sure where to start, here’s a helpful resource. 

✔️ Use RASCI matrices: These tools help define roles and responsibilities across departments, reducing confusion and streamlining the approval process.

✔️ Communicate early and often: Don't wait until you have a finished policy to involve other teams. Bring them into the process early to get their input and build support.

✔️ Be prepared to iterate: Policy development isn't a one-and-done process. Policies often change due to new regulations or evolving social norms. Be open to feedback and ready to make adjustments as needed.

Getting buy-in can be time-consuming, but it's essential. A policy that doesn't have broad support across your organization is likely to face implementation challenges down the line.

From Policy to Practice: Training and Implementation

Having a well-written policy is only half the battle. The real test is  translating that policy into consistent, effective moderation practices. 

Key points to consider:

✔️ Develop comprehensive training materials: These should include not just an overview of the policy itself, but also the rationale behind it, clear definitions of key terms, and plenty of examples of in and out of scope content for your content moderation teams.

✔️ Use a mix of training methods: Combine written materials, in-person (or virtual) training sessions, and hands-on practice for best results. Consider leveraging  an LMS to scale your training operations as your platform grows.

✔️ Don't forget about edge cases: Make sure your training covers not just the clear-cut violations, but also the gray areas where moderators will need to exercise judgment.

✔️ Plan for ongoing training: As policies evolve (and they will), make sure you have a system in place for keeping moderators up-to-date. It’s also important to deprecate outdated information so that your team isn’t accidentally enforcing legacy policies. 

✔️ Implement ethical AI-assisted moderation: Integrate AI tools that work in tandem with human moderators, not replace them. At TrustLab, we specialize in this approach. 

Train your team to effectively use AI outputs while adhering to your platform's policies. This approach is streamlined while also ensuring accountability through ongoing oversight and governance. 

Implementation doesn't stop at training, either. You'll need to think about how to measure the effectiveness of your policies, and how to remedy possible enforcement errors through user appeals.  

Measuring Success: Post-Launch Evaluation and Iteration

Launching a new policy isn't the end of the process—it's just the beginning. Our whitepaper emphasizes the importance of ongoing evaluation and refinement:

✔️ Establish clear metrics: Decide how you'll measure the success of your policies. This might include metrics like prevalence, action rate, and user appeals and reports, etc.  

✔️ Conduct regular audits: Periodically review a sample of moderation decisions to ensure consistency and identify areas for improvement.

✔️ Listen to user feedback: Your users can provide valuable insights into how even the best laid policies may falter in practice. Create channels for them to provide feedback.

✔️ Stay transparent: Consider publishing regular transparency reports to build trust with your users. If you have operations or users in the EU, you may already be required to do so under the Digital Services Act (DSA). 

Navigating the Gray Areas: Ethical Considerations and Cultural Nuances

One of the most challenging aspects of content moderation is dealing with the nuances and gray areas that inevitably arise. Our whitepaper dedicates significant attention to this topic:

✔️ Consider ethical implications: Policies often involve complex ethical considerations. For instance, how do you balance freedom of expression with the need to protect user privacy? 

Consider the depiction of graphic violence on social media (e.g. police brutality or humanitarian emergencies). Some believe that sharing this content plays a pivotal role in raising awareness for important issues, while others feel that it is insensitive and an invasion of privacy. How will your platform moderate this kind of content? 

✔️ Be culturally sensitive: What's acceptable in one culture may be considered offensive in another. Consider creating separate content policies for different regions. 

For instance, different regions and cultures have varying views on what they consider to be sexually explicit or inappropriate.  This highlights the complexity of creating universally applicable content policies and the need for localized, culturally-aware approaches to moderation.

✔️ Create a framework for handling edge cases: Context matters. Not everything will fit neatly into your policy categories. Establish a process for dealing with borderline cases. 

For instance, in moderating adult content, you might encounter art or educational content that contains nudity. Will your policy make an exception for nudity in the context of a painting or diagram? Another example is the reclaiming of derogatory and pejorative terms by marginalized communities. Queer, for example, can be used to describe one’s sexual orientation or as a homophobic slur. Having a clear framework for assessing context and intent is key in these situations.

✔️ Stay informed about emerging issues: The digital landscape is constantly evolving. Keep an eye on emerging trends and be prepared to adapt your policies accordingly. 

A prime example is the rapid development of generative AI and deepfakes, which has brought about the need for new policies around synthetic media and content authenticity.

Remember, the goal isn't to create a perfect, all-encompassing policy, but to develop a framework that can guide decision-making in complex situations.

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The digital world is constantly changing, and your policies need to evolve along with it.

Developing and implementing content policies is a complex, ongoing process. It requires careful planning, broad collaboration, and a commitment to continuous improvement. But when done well, it can make a real difference in creating safer, more positive online spaces.

I hope these insights prove useful in your own policy development journey. Don't hesitate to reach out to other Trust & Safety Professionals for support and advice as you navigate these challenges. Remember, we're all in this together. Here's to creating a better internet for all!