A game was released on October 17th, which aims to flip the script by putting users in charge of safety on a fictional digital platform. The game seeks to teach people about the complicated trade-offs faced by tech companies on a daily basis.
Trust and Safety Tycoon is a browser-based non-profit game developed by the Atlantic Council and the Copia Institute that lets users craft rules for content, allocating resources and setting safety protocols for a budding site named “Yapper.”
The game begins by allowing users to make decisions about whether people would be required to use their real name to sign up for Yapper or whether to prohibit bots on the site.
In progressing through the game, the calls become highly complex as they face different competing interests such as maintaining “controversial health” on Yapper, growing its user base, and making sure that the moderators are not facing burnout.
People took their curiosity online and shared their thoughts about the new game, with some speculating that the game is one way for X (formerly Twitter) to outsource strategies from gamers for free, as they find “Yapper” very similar to the social media platform.
The CEO of Copia Institute, Mike Masnick, who co-created the game elaborates their goal in creating his game through the Techdirt News Blog.
He said, “Our goal with Trust & Safety Tycoon is to help more people understand the kinds of dilemmas, nuances, and challenges of handling trust & safety these days. Too many people have very strong feelings about how it should work, despite having little experience in how things actually work.”
“Trust & Safety Tycoon gives people a chance to try out their own ideas on how to manage a trust and safety program from the ground up and see how well it works. There is no ‘right’ answer with any of this, but not all decisions will lead to positive outcomes for you, or the company you’re working for,” he added.
This game was funded through a grant from the Hewlett Foundation and created in partnership with the Leveraged Play development studio.
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