Stories

Conference Feb. 2 will address how some of Silicon Valley’s top companies moderate and remove problematic Internet content.

Internet companies have trillions of pieces of content in their databases. When specific content items cross the line—violating either the law or the site’s “house rules”—how should the companies handle them?  

The officials charged with making such decisions at some of the biggest Internet companies in Silicon Valley will attend a first-of-its-kind legal conference Feb. 2, to address those questions. For many of these companies, this will be the first time they discuss their content moderation efforts in an open-door, on-the-record event.

The all-day conference, Content Moderation & Removal at Scale, is taking place Feb. 2 at Santa Clara University School of Law. It will bring together officials from WordPress parent Automattic; Google; Facebook; Pinterest; Yelp; Wikimedia, and more, to discuss the procedures, personnel and challenges of moderating and removing problematic third-party content.

Those sharing their operational insights will include:

• Automattic: Paul Sieminski, general counsel; David Watkis, community guardian
• Dropbox: Ted Dean, head of public policy
• Facebook: Monika Bickert, VP of consumer operations
• Google: Nora Puckett, senior litigation counsel
• Medium: Alex Feerst, general counsel and head of trust & safety
• Nextdoor: Gautham Pai and Gordon Strause, directors of neighborhood operations
• Patreon: Colin Sullivan, head of legal
• Pinterest: Adelin Cai, policy team; Charlotte Willner, trust and safety manager
• Reddit: Jessica Ashooh, director of policy
• Wikimedia: Jacob Rogers, legal counsel; Jan Gerlach, public policy manager
• Yelp: Aaron Schur, senior director of legal

The full agenda is available at the website, The event is sponsored by the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara Law with financial support from Craig Newmark Philanthropies.

Reporters may attend by registering (free for media) and notifying SCU Media Communications Assistant Director Deborah Lohse, dlohse@scu.edu or 408-554-5121.

About Santa Clara University School of Law
Santa Clara University School of Law, one of the nation’s most diverse law schools, is dedicated to educating lawyers who lead with a commitment to excellence, ethics, and social justice.  Santa Clara Law offers students an academically rigorous program including certificates in high tech law, international law, public interest and social justice law, and privacy law, as well as numerous graduate and joint degree options.  Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Santa Clara Law is nationally distinguished for its faculty engagement, preparation for practice, and top-ranked programs in intellectual property.  For more information, see law.scu.edu.  

Media Contact
Deborah Lohse | SCU Media Communications | dlohse@scu.edu | 408-554-5121