# An Interview with a former TikTok policy manager Marika Tedroff, also known as Malla, is interested in the internet, culture, and policy. Her experiences range from VC-related work all the way to managing policy at TikTok (from which she recently left). Most recently, she worked in TikTok’s monetization policy team, crafting the moderation guidelines that make up some of TikTok’s global policies. Last month, she wrote a [blog post](https://zoningout.substack.com/p/content-moderation-at-tiktok-bobs) about her experiences at TikTok, and why moderation is so hard. One theme that arose is the disconnect between how users view content moderation, and the work that happens behind the scenes. We had a chat to dig into this issue further, and get her thoughts on the future of Trust & Safety more generally. ## Conversation Highlights ### **IPPOLITA**: In what ways do you think the industry can shed light on the ‘how’s and why’s’ of moderation systems for users? And do you think this disconnect is also a question of media literacy? _I absolutely think it’s a question of media literacy, among other things. I think the space in general is complicated, it’s very reliant on everybody using their own critical minds to assess what they’re seeing and why things are happening. And in relation to transparency, I think there’s a huge gap between the impressions users are getting about how things work and how they actually work._ _But we also have to remember that there are many reasons for why not everything is super transparent, reasons that ultimately help protect users._ _At the same time, I do think it is important that users understand there are operational and product issues behind these challenges, it’s not as straightforward as many seem to think. People might attribute issues to value judgements or targeting specific posts or accounts, but this is not what I experienced when I was working there; rather, ops issues played a key role. It’s complex._ _Overall, I don’t think transparency alone or even communicating ‘why’ and ‘how’, will fix any problems. But it’s perhaps more about addressing the users, their concerns and worries, because there’s a lot of assumptions about how things work that are not always rooted in reality. People make these assumptions when they do not have enough information and data about ‘how’ and ‘why’ things are happening. This is true for most companies and industries._ ### **IPPOLITA:** But from a policy perspective, why is content classification such a hard task? _Yeah, it is super hard because ultimately you have to represent a lot of different voices. There are a lot of elements to consider. There are legal restrictions, regulatory factors, public pressures etc._ _However, those legal requirements, the public pressure, what users want or not, and where we draw the line between being responsible but not silencing users, that’s really hard to do. Because not everything can fit into this box. So you always have to measure these risks internally in your mind:_ _What is the harm of people seeing this versus what is the harm of people being silenced because of it? Which voice should carry the most weight?_ _Should we listen to all the parents being concerned about their children spending too much time on social media? Should we listen to what the users want to publish? Should we listen to the business needs?_ _There are all these distinct voices, and a lot of noise. As a policy person you have to write something that meets all these different requirements, balancing these various needs._ ### **IPPOLITA:** What role do you think the design of a specific platform plays into how content is created and disseminated? _What is unique about TikTok — and other platforms that are increasingly moving in this direction — is this multi type of content/formats. For example, we now have video, live streaming and more. All these different formats bring new moderation challenges._ _When there’s video, there’s all kinds of things and more nuances to account for._ ### **IPPOLITA:** Misinformation is clearly a major issue. What are your thoughts on how social media platforms can tackle this? _Yeah, misinformation, fraud and all these things are very difficult for many reasons. I think two of the main drivers are:_ _a) Facts are increasingly expressed as opinions._ _b) Bad actors are never shining their red lights and saying, ‘hey, I’m a fraudulent bad actor and I’m spreading misinformation’._ ### **IPPOLITA:** Despite these challenges, do you feel optimistic about the future of online safety? _I am generally optimistic. It has become an important topic, and it wasn’t some years ago. I’ve seen a lot of new startups in the social media and live chat space incorporating policy and community guidelines from the outset._ ### **IPPOLITA:** Do you have an ideal, ‘dream’ solution in mind, if so what would it be? _I think it would be cool to see a new social media platform where not everybody is allowed to post content._ _Of course, utility and use cases would differ from traditional social media apps, but given the fact most people don’t actually post content, it might still be interesting if it results in higher quality content for users._ ### **IPPOLITA:** Any final thoughts? _Yeah. And just this general idea of knowing that ‘I’m really shaped by this app’ and just being reminded of that constantly because it’s so easy to forget._ Teaching media literacy in schools. Image via Unitary.