Instructor Spotlight: Sara Analoui

What is Trust and Safety?

Trust and Safety are the combination of policies, products, and teams that work together to protect users from harmful content, fraud, and a variety of other issues for online platforms.

What piece of advice would you give students interested in entering the field of Trust and Safety?

Dive deep into whatever topic interests you most! There is no single path to working in Trust and Safety policy. Many of my colleagues had careers in law, education, research, and even music before pivoting to working in policy. The experiences and passions you bring with you to this job is what will make you successful.

What do you hope that students will take away from your course?

I hope that my students feel like they can make more informed decisions about how they use social media and that they understand how they can advocate for safer online experiences. Through my own career in tech policy, I have learned so much about how and why I use social media—and knowing about how the internal decisions get made has made me a more confident user of these platforms.

What's coming up in your course that you are particularly excited about?

I’m really excited about our in-class debate! The students will take turns presenting their positions on a variety of salient policy issues and I’m really excited to hear what they have to say. I’ve been so impressed by how thoughtful they have been in our in-class discussions and their written assignments so I’m looking forward to the dialogue in the debate!

Sara Analoui is a Policy Expert at Discord for the Unified Developer Platform on the Safety by Design team. She previously worked at TikTok and has 8 years of industry experience in technology, with a focus on creating a safer internet for the most vulnerable users. She earned a Master’s in Child Study and Human Development from Tufts. Her master’s research was focused on Manosphere content consumption and the intersection with college male identity development.