The Trust & Safety Teaching Consortium 

The Trust & Safety Teaching Consortium is a coalition of academic, industry and non-profit experts in online trust and safety problems. Our goal is to create content that can be used to teach a variety of audiences about trust and safety issues in a wide variety of formats.

We are sharing a 13-module reading list and associated slide decks. We created these materials in Spring 2023. We encourage instructors to review readings and slide deck content to ensure they are up to date at the time of use. Note: The slide decks frequently reference readings from the reading list.

The teaching content we created covers sensitive topics, and instructors should carefully review materials before assigning them. Instructors should consider what content warnings they want to apply and what content might not be appropriate for their audience. Many Consortium members tell students what sensitive topics will be covered and when, and they give students the option to skip sensitive classes (or walk out in the middle of class) and skip associated readings without penalty.

Currently the reading list and slide decks are in Google Docs and Google Slides, and we link to the files below. We plan to convert these files into LaTeX in the coming months to facilitate collaboration.

If you are interested in helping to create teaching content, email trustandsafetyjournal@stanford.edu to join the Consortium.

Reading List 

Reading list

Slide Decks and Exercises

• Introduction to Trust and Safety (Google Slides) (Latex Slides) (Full-Course Exercise)

  • Camille François (Columbia University; Niantic Labs); Mariana Olaizola Rosenblat (NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights); Alex Stamos (Stanford Internet Observatory); Shelby Grossman (Stanford Internet Observatory)

• Government Regulation (Google Slides) (Latex Slides)

  • Karen Maxim

• Metrics and Measurement (Google Slides) (Latex Slides) (Exercises)

  • Inbal Goldberger (ActiveFence); Alex Leavitt (Roblox; UC Berkeley); Charu Pokhriyal (Teleperformance)

• Content Moderation (Google Slides) (Latex Slides) (Exercises)

  • Joseph Seering (KAIST)

• Information Environment (Google Slides) (Latex Slides)

  • Kevin Aslett (University of Central Florida); Brian Murphy (Georgetown University) 

• Terrorism, Radicalization, and Extremism (Google Slides) (Latex Slides) (Exercises)

  • Mariana Olaizola Rosenblat (NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights); Inga Trauthig (The University of Texas at Austin); Mark Schneider

• Harassment and Hate Speech (Google Slides) (Latex Slides) (Exercises)

  • Ina Kamenova (University of Massachusetts Lowell); Q. J. Yao (Lamar University, Texas)

• Child and Adult Sexual Exploitation (Google Slides) (Exercises)

  • Caroline Humer (International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children); Leslie Taylor (Genpact)

• Suicide, Self-Harm, and Well-Being (Google Slides) (Exercises)

  • Katherine Keyes; Alex Leavitt (Roblox; UC Berkeley); Elena Cryst (Stanford Internet Observatory); Kathleen Boehle (Securly)

• Authentication, Identity, and Platform Manipulation (Google Slides) (Exercises)

  • Lee Foster (Alperovitch Institute for Cybersecurity Studies at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies); Tabea Wilke (Twincler); Charu Pokhriyal (Teleperformance)

• Types of Attack Surfaces (Google Slides) (Exercises)

  • Alex Leavitt (Roblox; UC Berkeley); Charu Pokhriyal (Teleperformance)

• Emerging Technologies and Career Advice (Google Slides) (Exercises)

  • Michael Swenson (Meta); Amar Ashar (Berkman Klein Center)

Teaching Consortium Members Teaching Online Safety in the 2023-2024 Academic Year

• Kevin Aslett, University of Central Florida
  • Politics of Online Security
• Olga Belogolova, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
  • Influence Operations in the Digital Age
• Lee Foster, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
  • Threat Intelligence for Information Operations
• Camille François, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs
  • Introduction to Trust & Safety
• Justin Francese, University of Oregon
  • Communication Law J385
• Beth Goldberg, Yale University
  • Misinformation in the Age of AI
• Inbal Goldberger, ActiveFence
  • NYU - ActiveFence Trust & Safety Academy
• Shelby Grossman, Stanford Internet Observatory
  • Trust and Safety Engineering
• Jeff Hancock, Stanford Internet Observatory
  • Trust and Safety Engineering
• Laura McLester, The University of Alabama at Birmingham
  • Digital Safety
• Lisa Schirch, University of Notre Dame
  • Peacetech and Digital Peacebuilding
• Joseph Seering, KAIST
  • Trust and Safety Engineering and Practice
• Sarah Shirazyan, Stanford Law School
  • Confronting Misinformation Online: Law and Policy
• Alex Stamos, Stanford Internet Observatory
  • Trust and Safety Engineering