Article 21 of the Digital Services Act is perhaps the strangest provision of the European regulation. It grants users the right to appeal moderation decisions to independent, certified organizations. Last summer, the Article 21 - Academic Advisory Board was founded to address complex questions surrounding this unusual provision and the ecosystem it creates.

In this panel, the Advisory Board brings together representatives of ODS bodies, platforms, and experts to examine the role, functionality, and influence of ODS. The discussion will explore what users expect when turning to ODS bodies, how these bodies can fulfill their role, and what value they add to the broader content moderation landscape. The panel will consider how ODS bodies can deliver high-quality decisions at scale, what technology they need to succeed, and the regional and extraterritorial impact of ODS. It will also discuss whether ODS changes the relationship between users and platforms, whether it contributes to the fair enforcement of terms and conditions, or whether it limits platform discretion in moderating speech. Finally, the panel will place ODS in a broader geopolitical context, considering the emerging regulatory tensions between the EU and the US and evaluating its potential to strengthen platform accountability.

Trust & Safety teams are essential to platform integrity, compliance, and user retention but securing resources remains a challenge. Despite their impact, many teams struggle to articulate their value in a way that resonates with executives, leaving them underfunded and overlooked when it comes to budget allocation.

This workshop is designed to bridge that gap. Through interactive exercises, live case study breakdowns, and guided discussions, participants will explore how to measure and communicate the ROI of their work. We will unpack real-world examples of companies that have successfully made the case for T&S investments, identifying the metrics that secured buy-in from leadership. Attendees will learn how to move beyond vague notions of “safety” and instead frame initiatives as essential to business, user retention, and regulatory preparedness.

The session will be practical, providing worksheets, methodologies, and messaging templates that participants can take back home. They will develop their ROI narrative, practice aligning safety initiatives with company-wide goals, and refine their stakeholder messaging to make a stronger case for resources. Participants will have the opportunity to exchange insights and learn from each other’s experiences, ensuring that everyone leaves with not just new strategies, but a network of peers tackling the same issues.

As decentralized platforms continue to grow in popularity, they are coming face to face with the challenge that everyone on the Internet must eventually confront: bad actors do bad things, no matter what you do. However, when the DNA of your service is designed to decentralise decision making, the difficulty increases tenfold. In this context, this panel explores the unique challenges and opportunities around T&S for decentralised services.

In this context the session will consider user empowerment and protection on decentralised services, implications for moderation, the role of volunteer moderators, and the burden of navigating regulations, such as the EU Digital Services Act and the UK Online Safety Act, that were written with centralised services in mind.

This session will dig into how decentralized platforms can effectively scale their T&S operations while honoring the principle of user autonomy of their design. We’ll explore how moderation tools work on distributed networks, discuss how communities can share resources to tackle illegal and harmful content, and highlight strategies for aligning governance with wider legal obligations. Attendees will gain fresh insights into what successful T&S looks like in a world where the power - and decision-making - are decentralized.