Workshop Report: Engaging Trust & Safety and Human Rights Practitioners on Rights-Respecting Responses to Government Demands

In October 2025, TSF and the Global Network Initiative (GNI) jointly hosted a virtual workshop “Engaging Trust & Safety and Human Rights Practitioners on Rights-Respecting Responses to Government Demands” to explore engagement across these two fields, in the context of how social media companies can respond to government demands while respecting user rights. The workshop set out to understand the shared goals and objectives between the trust & safety and human rights fields, as well as differences in approaches, guiding principles, and understanding of effectiveness, all in the context of responding to government demands.

TSF and GNI published a high-level summary report from that workshop, alongside the hypothetical tabletop exercise that was used to guide the conversation. The report summarizes key takeaways, which could be fruitful for further discussion by the participating organizations and the field at large. The tabletop exercise offers a structure to host similar conversations and build on this work.

TSF and GNI look forward to continuing these conversations. We are keen to hear your ideas on questions, approaches, and outputs to explore ways to continue to foster productive conversations across the human rights and trust and safety fields. Please reach out to our organizations with any questions or ideas.