Mission & Vision
Our Mission: We advance the theory and practice of protecting the social internet, powered by our community of integrity professionals.
Our Vision: The social internet should help individuals, societies, and democracies thrive.
Context
We are engineers, product managers, researchers, analysts, data scientists, operations specialists, policy experts and more, with decades of combined experience across numerous platforms.
We understand the systemic causes of problems on the social internet and how to mitigate them. We have seen (and built!) successful and unsuccessful solutions. We bring this experience and expertise directly to the people theorizing, building, and governing the social internet.
We have a lot of work to do. Companies that own social media platforms can use bad design practices or fail to build responsibly, systematically rewarding bad behavior in ways that affect individual well-being, social trust, and the stability of governments and institutions.
The Integrity Institute Oath
To join, every member of the Integrity Institute needs to do a few things. One of them is to affirm the Integrity Oath.
We want to see a future where this would serve as a hippocratic oath for all integrity workers. It is a lightweight, guiding ethical framework that we hold ourselves to, and we challenge everyone in the industry to do so as well.
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Put the public interest first.
Do your work for the right reasons. Do not chase status or glory for its own sake.
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Make sure to tell the truth about your work and its implications.
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Give credit where it is due. Lead with alternatives and new approaches rather than only pointing out flaws. Work well with others.
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Integrity workers have access to immensely powerful systems. We work in the public trust. Use this power responsibly.
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Remember that your first job is to protect the public, especially the weakest amongst them.
This is a stressful job. Often, it involves taking a stand for what's right, instead of what's easy. We must look after each other. Protect your fellow integrity people, keep them safe, make sure they have the support they need to thrive.
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Do not use your position to favor one group above others. Do not allow any partisanship to affect your work, except for being a partisan for the practice of integrity.
Do not focus on one company when the dynamic you are describing is common to the industry as a whole.
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Be a good person. Be nice. Care about others.
“While at Facebook, I had the honor of serving side by side with many of those on the Institute's founding team and they couldn't be better suited to take this mission forward. I encourage all those who work in trust and safety and who take their responsibility to the world seriously to join them.”
At a Glance
Our plans, model, goals, and strategy – all in two pages.
How to Save the Internet
Do you work on an issue area where social media are exacerbating the harms? We are attacking the hydra of online harms at its root! Read about how we do it and let’s talk.
What is an Integrity Worker?
We’ve seen the rise of a new type of tech worker on social platforms. The work they do goes by many names - Trust and Safety, Health, Integrity, Community Safety, Anti-Abuse, Security Engineering - but the focus of the work is the same: protecting people and societies on the social internet. We call them integrity professionals.
Many traditional tech roles can be integrity professionals:
data scientists
designers
engineers
product managers
product and content policy specialists
researchers
operations specialists
…and more.
We all work at the intersection of product, policy, and society.
We understand how information ecosystems work, and combine technical, experimental, and social science skills.
If you have experience tackling any of these issues on behalf of a technology platform, you’re probably an Integrity worker
Ethical Design
Harassment
Hate Speech
Hoaxes
Spam
Inauthentic Behavior
Data Transparency and Reporting
Information Operations
Content Quality
Espionage
Disinformation
Misinformation
Digital Crime
Information Ecosystems
Child Safety
Counter-Terrorism
Human Trafficking
Toxicity
Impersonation