At RightsCon 2025, the Global Network Initiative (GNI) and the Trust and Safety Foundation (TSF) co-hosted a meeting to advance digital rights globally by bringing together trust and safety professionals and civil society organizations in and from the Global Majority. The meeting report summarizes the session, including key takeaways, recommendations, and resources shared. This in-person session was part of the RightsCon session, held as an invite-only meeting under the Chatham House Rule.
Although trust and safety (T&S) work impacts online and offline lives all over the world, T&S teams are mainly based in the U.S. and Europe (with a small number in Singapore). Moreover, many civil society organizations (CSOs), despite working for years to keep online users safe while also promoting their rights, may not have had the opportunity to engage with T&S teams or might not be aware of the relevance of T&S teams to their work. This meeting was designed to move beyond discussing existing issues between T&S teams and CSOs in the Global Majority, in order to identify what is and isn’t working to protect digital rights and how to strengthen relationships moving forward.
The T&S professionals and members of CSOs who joined this session evidenced a strong desire to work together and a willingness to build on what’s working. While acknowledging the existing systemic constraints and the growing challenges as the overall landscape shifts globally, the group also acknowledged that there were many “missed opportunities” when CSOs from the Global Majority interact only with Public Policy teams and not with T&S teams. Having more exposure to the daily work of T&S can help CSOs offer more nuanced input; having stronger partnerships with CSOs can help companies ensure their products and services are rights-respecting and help triage specific incidents for users.
This meeting is the second in our partnership with the Trust & Safety Foundation; our first virtual workshop “Engaging Trust & Safety and Human Rights Practitioners on Rights-Respecting Responses to Government Demands” explored engagement across these two fields, in the context of how social media companies can respond to government demands while respecting user rights. GNI and TSF look forward to continuing to foster productive conversations across the human rights and trust and safety fields. Please reach out to our organizations with any related ideas, questions, or opportunities to collaborate.