TSPA membership is open to trust and safety practitioners; those aspiring to work in trust and safety (students or former trust and safety practitioners who are currently looking for trust and safety employment); and other professionals in the field of civil society, academia, or non-governmental organizations whose research or work directly relates to the field of trust and safety.
Who is a trust and safety practitioner?
Trust and safety practitioners are defined as individuals whose day-to-day work directly involves developing or enforcing principles, policies, or practices that determine acceptable content or behavior. Professionals who work in content review and moderation, internal policy development, safety incident management, legal compliance, and T&S-focused technical development. This could also include engineers working on automating product policy, data scientists working on measuring abuse prevalence, and public policy managers working on shaping public education of platform policies. Members can range from front-line individual contributors, to managers and directors, to VPs — as long as their day-to-day work is trust and safety.
Professionals whose core responsibility is business development, marketing, sales, partnership management, or whose work does not directly involve developing or enforcing trust and safety principles, policies, or practices are not considered trust and safety practitioners and do not qualify for TSPA membership.
Membership benefits
Access to educational content. Members of TSPA have access to various virtual and in-person events that help advance their profession. Events can be lectures or expert talks, panel discussions, and closed roundtable discussions on sensitive or highly relevant issues. TSPA is also home to a growing library of resources about different trust and safety topics that members can access to advance their practice at their own pace, no matter where they are in their professional journey.
Contribute to the development of the trust and safety field. TSPA has many avenues for members to share their expertise. In addition to opportunities that highlight and elevate members’ contributions to the trust and safety field, members have the chance to help shape the future development of the field by joining TSPA’s working groups, speaking at our events, and being leaders for the professional community.
Community connection. As the first and only organization focused on the professional development of trust and safety practitioners, TSPA offers its members opportunities to connect and network with a community of peers who can relate to the universal challenges of the field, regardless of organization. Whether virtual (such as our Slack space) or in-person (such as our Meet & Greets), TSPA members learn best practices, share emerging trends, and build meaningful relationships with one another.
Learn more about what TSPA does and take a look at our various programs under the Explore drop down menu.
Types of membership
Corporate Supporter Membership
We define corporate supporter membership as a company signing on to become a corporate supporter and thereby providing all their trust and safety employees with TSPA membership. To qualify as a corporate supporter, a company must have employees who do trust and safety work, as defined above. Companies whose services or products support the work of trust and safety (for example, data analysis, software products, AI-powered identification models) are not qualified for corporate supporter membership, as generally, these company’s main products are software and tools and do not always include employees who would qualify as a trust and safety practitioner, per TSPA’s definition.
A membership term is for one year, starting when a corporate supporter signs their contract. Although a company becomes a corporate supporter, once any one of their employees becomes a member, membership belongs to the employee and stays with them for the year, even if they leave the company.
Is Corporate Supporter membership right for you? Click here for more information about corporate supporter membership.
See here for TSPA’s list of current corporate supporters.
My Company Supports TSPA. Am I a TSPA Member?
If you work for a supporting company, that means your company covers the cost of your membership. However, you still need to fill out an application form in order to become a TSPA member. Members have access to our Membership Portal, TSPA Slack channels, and enjoy other membership benefits. If your company supports TSPA but you do not have a TSPA membership, you can apply here.
Individual Membership
Any trust and safety practitioner can join TSPA independent of their employer. Prospective members need to either be currently practicing or, if they are not currently employed, planning on finding their next job in trust and safety. Former trust and safety practitioners, who are currently working in roles outside of trust and safety, are not qualified to join as members. Membership is for one year from when membership dues are paid.
Student Membership
Current students who aspire to work in trust and safety upon graduation may join as student members. As part of the application process, applicants will need to provide proof that they are a student. Please note that student members may not receive full access to member benefits. Membership is for one year from when membership dues are paid.
Affiliate Membership
Individuals who work in civil society, academia, or nongovernmental organizations, whose work or research directly relates to trust and safety may join as affiliate members. We think it is vital to include professionals working in this space, as there are many people – other than trust and safety professionals – who are part of the online trust and safety ecosystem. As part of the application process, applicants for this member type will need to explain how their work intersects with trust and safety, and explain how their contribution as a TSPA member supports the development of the trust and safety field and trust and safety practitioners. Note that affiliate members may not receive full access to member benefits. Membership is for one year from when membership dues are paid.