TSPA Membership Types and Dues

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. There are four types of membership based on what you do or where you work. 

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 Types

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. 

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. Is Individual membership right for you? Click here to apply for individual membership. 

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. Is Student membership right for you? Click here to apply for student membership. 

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. Click here to apply for affiliate membership. 

Membership Dues

Corporate supporter member dues

Corporate supporter membership fees are based on a sliding scale, based on the company’s market cap or valuation and the number of trust and safety employees. We work with each company individually to determine the appropriate corporate membership fee that works for their company’s budget and size. 

Individual, affiliate & student member dues

We believe all trust and safety professionals should have the support of a community, so we've structured membership dues to ensure cost is not a barrier. Because trust and safety professionals work all over the world, individual, affiliate, and student membership dues are based on your country of residence. Dues are discounted based on the World Bank's country classification by income level, which is based on a country's GNI per capita. (Click on the link in the table to determine which countries are considered high, middle, or low income.) Student membership dues are discounted, with further country income level discounts applied. 

Scholarships

At TSPA, we believe membership should be accessible to any qualifying trust and safety practitioner regardless of their ability to pay. If you cannot afford membership dues, please contact us at [email protected] so we can give you information about our scholarship program. Please note that scholarships are reserved for trust and safety practitioners and applications are reviewed and approved on a rolling basis.