Code of Conduct

Expectations for Participation

TSF expects everyone who participates in TSF activities, events, programs, and both online and offline spaces to be respectful.

Respectful Behavior

The following are examples of respectful behavior:

  • Listening and engaging with a willingness to learn.

  • Bringing others into the conversation and creating spaces to share ideas. 

  • Respecting each other’s work. 

  • Proactively acknowledging professional affiliations and disclosing potential conflicts of interest.

  • Respecting each other’s privacy and, when requested or legally required, adhering to confidentiality.

Disrespectful Behavior

The following are examples of disrespectful behavior that may result in warnings, removals, and/or bans:

  • Disparaging other’s work.

  • Dominating conversations and/or preventing others from participating.

  • Misleading others with regards to role and/or organizational affiliation.

  • Taking credit for someone else’s ideas or work, including plagiarizing. 

  • Sharing or making copies of someone else’s work product without approval or consent. 

  • Deliberately misrepresenting research data or findings.

  • Revealing the identity or affiliation of others when an activity or event is conducted off the record and/or under Chatham House rule.

Additionally, the following are examples of disrespectful behavior that TSF will not tolerate:

  • Harmful or prejudicial comments (in text or speech) related to race, color, caste, ethnicity, immigration status, national origin, religion or faith, sex or gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or medical condition, lower socio-economic status, age, weight or size, pregnancy, veteran status, or any other attributes or characteristics. 

  • Intimidating, stalking, or threatening others.

  • Assault, damage to property or person, or other behaviors with the intent to harass or harm.

  • Unwelcome sexual or romantic attention, contact, behavior, or advances.

  • Disruptive online behaviors (for example, spamming, Zoombombing).

Additional Expectations

Employer Compliance and Guidelines

TSF doesn’t have insight into codes of conduct, legal or ethical obligations, or other compliance requirements set out by other employers or professions. Each individual must ensure they never engage in activity that could put their employer or employment at risk: 

  • Read, understand, and comply with employer’s antitrust policy, data use policies, and privacy policies.

  • Do not reveal or exchange information that violates terms of employment, such as sharing trade secrets or internal-only documentation that hasn’t been approved for circulation.

Legal Obligations and Confidentiality

Compliance with Laws and Ethics

Do not engage in illegal or unethical behavior. Comply with all applicable laws and regulations when engaging in TSF activities, events, programs, and both online and offline spaces. Compliance with applicable laws and ethics is the responsibility of the individual. If engaged in research projects or activities, adhere to rigorous research standards and ethical guidelines (see Standards for Ethical Research).

Illegal content or behavior is prohibited on TSF’s communication platforms and workspaces. Although there may be times when people may discuss illegal content (e.g., CSAM), it is imperative that the content itself is not shared in TSF channels.

Antitrust 

TSF has a policy of strict compliance with federal and state antitrust laws. While engaging in TSF's activities, events, programs, and spaces, people should not have discussions and/or make decisions and/or agreements that could be considered a violation of antitrust laws.

Privacy and Confidentiality

Adhere to implicit and explicit confidentiality expectations when engaging in TSF activities, events, programs, and spaces. 

The following behaviors could violate privacy and confidentiality and result in action from TSF: 

  • Sharing Personally Identifiable Information (PII) without consent.

  • Intellectual property infringement, including taking screenshots or screen recordings of TSF virtual or in-person events and/or online communication spaces without consent.

  • Sharing others’ work, projects, or ideas without consent.

  • Violating confidentiality and/or NDA agreements.

Reflexivity

In research, reflexivity is “the act of examining one’s own assumption, belief, and judgement systems, and thinking carefully and critically about how these influence the research process” (Jamieson, Govaart & Pownall, 2023). In terms of TSF’s expectations across spaces not related to research, reflexivity can be best described as examining one’s assumptions about other stakeholders and potential collaborators to think carefully and critically about how biases may prevent collaboration. (For concrete examples, see TSF’s report “Why Is Collaboration So Hard?”.)

Sensitive Content

Due to the nature of trust and safety, there may be times when offensive or harmful content is shared and/or discussed in TSF spaces. Individuals should engage in these discussions with respect and empathy. When sharing and/or discussing sensitive content, proactively inform others. Content warnings may take the form of interstitials, labels, or verbal warnings. (See the “Abuse types” section of the T&S Curriculum for examples of sensitive content.)

Standards for Ethical Research

Anyone who engages in research in partnership with or on behalf of TSF agrees to the standards for ethical research outlined below. Additionally, researchers should abide by the standards set out by their organizations, employers, and disciplines or professional associations. See TSF’s definitions of what constitutes research and who is a researcher here.

Respect for Participants

Researchers should always show respect for all participants, including prospective participants.

Voluntary Participation

Researchers must never coerce participants. All participation should be voluntary. Researchers who are recruiting participants from within their own organizations should exercise extreme caution and thoughtfulness.

Informed Consent

Researchers should provide all prospective participants with study information in a language they can read and understand. Researchers should give all prospective participants the opportunity to ask questions and express any concerns before participating. 

Platform Data and Consent

TSF recognizes the collection and analysis of any human data as research involving human subjects, and acknowledges this is the case even when human data is collected passively (e.g., website cookies), invisibly (e.g., via smart home or IoT devices), algorithmically (e.g., credit scores), and/or as agreed to under a website’s terms and conditions

Public Data and Consent

In some cases, it may be challenging for researchers to secure informed consent, especially if they are using public and/or customer data (for example, Gibney, 2017); however, if the terms and conditions for a given platform do not specify that data may be used for research purposes, then researchers should always (1) identify themselves as researchers on the platform; (2) practice self-awareness and reflexivity; and (3) weigh attribution risks with privacy concerns (for example, see Gliniecka, 2023). These steps are especially important when collecting public data created by marginalized and vulnerable groups (see Klassen & Fiesler, 2022). 

If it’s logistically impossible for researchers to proactively secure informed consent (for example, if a researcher uses Wikipedia trace data, they may not be able to secure consent from all of the users who have created this data in the system, especially if some users have retired from editing and no longer use the system), then they should seek consent to use any and all identifiable data (if applicable) before the dissemination stage of a project. If they cannot secure informed consent for the use of identifiable data before dissemination, researchers should remove this data from their readouts. These kinds of complexities and tradeoffs should always be addressed during the design of a study.

Confidentiality and Privacy

Researchers should strive to protect the confidentiality and privacy of all participants, including prospective participants. 

Data Protection

Researchers should always seek to mitigate harm by justifying the collection, use, and storage of data (for example, limiting data to what is directly relevant and necessary), and by deleting Personal Identifiable Information (PII). 

Additionally, when designing a study and preparing to collect data, they should specify their appropriate data management and security measures. Different kinds of data require different kinds of data protection plans. In general, all participant data should be stored on password protected devices to which only research team members have access. Furthermore, sensitive data should always be encrypted, and researchers should always have an explicit justification for the collection, use, and storage of such data. 

For additional guidance, see examples such as Best Practices for Data Analysis of Confidential Data from Princeton University and Information Privacy and Security from the University of Washington.

Deception and Debriefing

At times researchers may withhold and/or omit information about a given study (for example, the specific procedures) in an attempt not to bias the results. All research using deception must be approved by the Research Coalition Steering Committee prior to recruitment. Researchers must provide both scientific and ethical justifications for using deception; they must also provide a concrete plan for debriefing all participants at the conclusion of the study.

Beneficence

As a general rule, researchers should do no harm, and their work should benefit society. Harm is usually considered within the context of what may occur in daily life and carefully weighed against potential benefits: “The probability and magnitude of harm or discomfort anticipated in the research are not greater in and of themselves than those encountered in daily life or during the performance of routine physical or psychological examinations or tests” (Brill, 2008). That is, research participants should not be at risk of harm beyond what they are likely to experience in their daily lives. 

Researchers should always disclose and avoid (or mitigate) the harms participants may encounter during a research study, including but not limited to: academic; community; financial; legal; moral; political; physical; psychological; and reputational (see these guidelines for additional details).

Justice

Researchers should ask, “Who benefits from this research? Who is adversely affected by this research? Who bears the burden of this research?” As many scholars have noted (for example, Lincoln & Guba, 1985), researchers occupy a position of power because they decide which questions to ask and what constitutes a problem and/or a solution and for whom (for example, Cunningham et al., 2022). 

Before engaging in research, researchers should systematically consider both risks and benefits—not only for study participants, but also for indirect stakeholders who may be impacted by the project and/or findings. If creating new knowledge is the only benefit of a study, it may not be a fit for the research conducted with or for TSF.

Researchers should also consider the concept of justice in the recruitment and selection of study participants. For example, in addition to choosing scientifically sound sampling methods, researchers should consider how to avoid bias when sampling from larger populations.

Incentives

Researchers may offer incentives—financial or otherwise—when recruiting participants. All incentives should be appropriate in type and amount and should be offered to all participants. Incentives to participate in research should never be so significant that participants are induced and/or coerced to participate in a given study and/or disregard the risks associated with participation.

Note: Incentives differ from reimbursement as the latter describes money given to participants to cover out-of-pocket expenses incurred during participation in a given study.

Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreements

Depending on the study, researchers may be required to sign mutual non-disclosure agreements and adhere to any legal confidentiality obligations.

Proactive Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest

Researchers should proactively disclose any potential conflicts of interest. For example, if a researcher receives financial support from a company and/or organization in which they have a financial interest, they must disclose this information to TSF.

Research Involving Minors

At this time, TSF will not conduct, support, and/or facilitate any research involving minors (anyone under the age of 18 years).

Reporting and Enforcement

Reporting Violations

Violations of TSF’s Code of Conduct can be reported to any TSF staff member. The person reporting can send a violation report via email (reports@trustandsafetyfoundation.org), or inform a TSF staff member in person. Reports must include the name of the person (if known) who violated the Code of Conduct, a description of what happened, and, if available, any documented evidence (screenshots, photos, etc.). The person reporting can be a witness, bystander, or victim. 

Privacy

TSF will keep confidential the identity of the person reporting if requested. Anonymous reports are permitted; however, TSF’s ability to investigate fully may be limited. 

Review and Investigation

If the violation occurred in Slack, email, or another platform in which there is documentation or written evidence, TSF will review the incident to confirm whether it violates TSF’s Code of Conduct. If the violation was in person, TSF may speak with the person who reported the incident to gather more details, speak with other witnesses, and/or speak with the person who violated the Code of Conduct. After review, TSF will determine whether the Code of Conduct was violated. The determination will be made by TSF staff, with a minimum of two staff members. If two staff members are not available or more perspectives are needed, TSF may bring in a board member or advisor.

Types of Enforcement 

If TSF determines that the actions violated TSF’s Code of Conduct, TSF may respond in a variety of ways, depending on the severity of the violation. 

Written or Verbal Warnings 

TSF will tell the person who violated the Code of Conduct that their behavior is unacceptable within TSF’s spaces. A member of TSF’s staff will explain why that behavior isn’t acceptable and ask the person to refrain from doing so again. In addition to the verbal warning, TSF will send an email summarizing the warning to the person who violated the Code of Conduct. 

Warnings will be given when actions that violated TSF’s CoC made others uncomfortable or are not appropriate, but did not cause physical harm or lasting mental anguish to others or material damage to TSF. When possible, the person who violated the Code of Conduct will be given a chance to remove messages from Slack, modify slides, or rectify the situation in some other way. Rectifying behavior is taken into account during enforcement, though repeated violations will be considered as such even when rectifying behavior is exhibited.

Removals or One-Time Bans

Depending on the infraction, TSF may remove someone from a TSF event or webinar. This may mean they are removed from a specific event immediately, or they may not present in upcoming engagements due to a recent Code of Conduct violation.  

Removal from a TSF Activity or Event

Depending on the infraction, TSF may not allow the person to participate in a specific activity or event. All access to that specific activity or event will be revoked. They will be removed by TSF (if on a virtual platform) or asked to leave by a TSF staff member (if in person). They will also be removed from any shared digital spaces (e.g., Slack, documents).

This consequence will apply after: repeated Code of Conduct violations that demonstrate an unwillingness to adhere to TSF’s Code of Conduct; violations involving attempts to circumvent policies or procedures; and/or violations that impact confidentiality, privacy, or safety of others. In such cases, violating individuals will be removed from further engagement to protect others.

Permanent Bans

If someone has multiple violations or if their violation is severe, TSF will ban them from all TSF spaces. This action will be applied if the person has repeated violations, including multiple warnings and other consequences. This action may also be applied if the violation is severe (for example, actions or behaviors caused physical harm or mental anguish to others or material damage to TSF, or violated TSF’s standards for ethical research).

Third-Party Reporting

Employer

TSF may contact an employer if a person’s violation involves or is on behalf of their company. For example, if an individual serving as a member of the Research Coalition on behalf of their organization engages in unethical conduct and/or research practices, TSF may contact their employer.

Law Enforcement or Other Authorities

TSF may report certain actions or behavior to law enforcement or other authorities if the actions or behaviors are illegal, harmful to others, or a liability for TSF. 

Preventing Violations and Rebuilding Trust 

In some cases, Code of Conduct violations may be unintentional or committed with positive intent. However, everyone must be held accountable for their actions, regardless of their intent. If the Code of Conduct isn't clear as to whether a specific behavior is appropriate, reach out to ask.

Accidental Violations

In a vast majority of cases, first time violations will result in warnings. If this is the case:

  • Ensure the cause of the warning is fully understood.

  • Determine whether any potential damage can be repaired (e.g., apologize, delete a post).

  • Ensure the rest of the Code of Conduct is thoroughly understood.

  • Continue healthy engagement with TSF and others; trust can be rebuilt over time.

Appeals Process

If someone feels the determination of a Code of Conduct violation and/or the consequence is underserved, they have the right to appeal once. They will need to email TSF via reports@trustandsafetyfoundation.org and explain why the determination was incorrect or why the consequences weren’t appropriate. Appeals will be reviewed by at least one staff member, advisor, or board member who was not involved in the initial investigation. In general, the person appealing the decision should also provide additional information to help TSF in its re-consideration. TSF will then provide a second determination and consequence, which will be the final decision.