Centering Community Voices: How Tech Companies Can Better Engage with Civil Society Organizations

Involving individuals that have expertise working with at-risk communities in the design process will allow companies to address online harms in a scalable and sustainable way, say Nadah Feteih and Elodie Vialle. Shutterstock Social media platforms have helped a virtual world flourish where people are connected now more than ever. But these platforms have also been abused and misused to amplify hate and harassment and thus harm marginalized and at-risk communities.    Activists are threatened when speaking up against oppressive governments. Human rights defenders and journalists are targeted ahead of elections. Social media has been used to influence the outcome of democratic processes, and with over 75 elections coming in 2024 there is more pressure to tackle issues like misinformation, online abuse, and microtargeting.  We are two individuals that come from different backgrounds—a software engineer from Egypt that has worked in Big Tech in the US and a journalist from France working with civil society groups internationally—yet we see the same problems. As human rights defenders, over the last few years we have documented examples of abuse where social media platforms have a direct responsibility in spreading hate and suppressing the voices of marginalized individuals (i.e. people of color, women, etc.). As tech workers and advocates, we’ve noticed how Big Tech’s business model often incentivizes growth, profit, and “innovation” over addressing human rights and ethical concerns. There is an urgent need to increase collaboration between companies and communities. Tech companies must center marginalized individuals from ideating features to launching them into production,…Centering Community Voices: How Tech Companies Can Better Engage with Civil Society Organizations