TikTok has partnered with the Trust and Safety Professional Association (TSPA) to provide TikTok trust and safety employees free membership to join TSPA. The membership will give TikTok professionals access to career development programs, workshops, and events and will also help them connect with individuals in similar fields.
TikTok made the announcement on May 18 and asserted that the platform aims to focus on creating a secure and uplifting work environment:
“We strive to create an engaging and supportive work environment for our employees, and our safety team especially. The TikTok Trust and Safety team works to keep our platform safe and welcoming for our global community. They develop and enforce our Community Guidelines so that people can be creative and have fun on our platform without unexpectedly viewing content that violates our policies.”
Today we're proud to announce that we're partnering with @tspainfo to provide every TikTok trust and safety employee with a membership to TSPA. Learn more about how this partnership will also benefit the TikTok community on our Newsroom. https://t.co/ZErM32GrVv
— TikTokComms (@TikTokComms) May 18, 2021
The announcement comes after TikTok has faced multiple controversies and allegations around their use of children’s data, which includes a lawsuit filed by Anne Longfield – a former Children’s Commissioner for England – for illegal use of children’s data in the UK and EU regions. TikTok has also banned users in Italy who participated in the TikTok “blackout challenge” – which led to the death of a 10-year-old girl.
To better tackle promoting potentially harmful content on its platform, TikTok launched new initiatives on its Safety Center to provide an updated resource hub that will allow parents to better control and safeguard their children on the platform. While this has been an important step for on-platform safety, TikTok employees have become the next big priority. The latest initiative will thus help trust and safety employees seek career support and other help through educational content provided by TSPA. The partnership will also help TikTok build trust with their employees and ensure positive career development for them.
Charlotte Willner – the Executive Director at TSPA – highlighted the importance of firms supporting their employees health and developing their careers:
“Online trust and safety is critical to healthy societal interactions, and it’s imperative to support the professionals who are doing this important work. We are thrilled to have TikTok join as one of our annual supporters, and we look forward to welcoming TikTok’s trust and safety team to our membership”.