A collection of my recent presentations, panel discussions, and media contributions. I’m always open to discussing trust and safety issues, open social web, and the future of social media. If you’d like me to speak at your event or join your podcast, please contact me.
Podcasts
Dot Social: The Fediverse’s Trust and Safety Warriors, with Samantha Lai and Jaz-Michael King
Jaz joins Flipboard CEO Mike McCue and policy analyst Samantha Lai (Carnegie Endowment) for a deep dive into the future of decentralized social media. The conversation explores the shift from corporate control to collective responsibility, highlighting how IFTAS provides the operational tools and governance needed to scale safety across federated platforms.
Decentered S1E5: Building Trust & Safety, with Jaz Michael-King
An in-depth conversation on the founding and mission of IFTAS. Jaz discusses the transition from managing health IT and regulatory compliance to building global safety infrastructure for the Fediverse. Key topics include the launch of FediCheck, navigating the EU Digital Services Act, and the development of tools to combat CSAM and protect moderator mental health.
Fireside Fedi Episode 50: Jaz-Michael King
A deep dive into the technical and social infrastructure of the Fediverse. Jaz discusses his role as Executive Director of IFTAS, the mission behind toot.wales, and the development of essential decentralised web tools including Fediverse Near Me and StartHereSocial.
Episode 24: Fake News, The Perennial Founder, and the FBI – Jaz-Michael King
An expansive look at Jaz’s career through the lens of the internet’s evolution. From running Brooklyn’s first cybercafes and building a dot-com startup to his work in health informatics and data privacy, Jaz discusses the lessons learned while navigating the early web, the FBI, and the founding of the bilingual network, Tŵt Cymru | Toot Wales.
Stages and Panels
Decentralised Social Networks (DisinfoCon, Berlin)
Hosted by: Democracy Reporting International (DRI). Jaz-Michael King (IFTAS), Aaron Rodericks (Bluesky), and Sandra Barthel (Interdisciplinary Scientist & Political Advisor) explore the regulatory gap facing the Social Web. Jaz joins leaders from Bluesky and policy experts to discuss the technical and technical challenges of global jurisdiction, the necessity of sovereign digital infrastructure, and the delicate balance between user autonomy and the essential need for meaningful regulation to protect the rule of law.
Hiraeth and Hashtags: Building a Bilingual Community on the Fediverse (SFSCon, Bolzano/Bozen)
An exploration of the journey to sustain toot.wales, a bilingual Welsh-English space in a decentralized world. Jaz discusses the “Hiraeth” (longing) for authentic digital spaces, the practicalities of linguistic moderation, and how local news and hashtags foster community cohesion. The talk offers a blueprint for others looking to nurture regional or indigenous language communities online.
Decentralized but Not Deregulated: Scaling T&S for Decentralized Platforms (TrustCon, San Francisco, California)
Jaz-Michael King (IFTAS), Aaron Rodericks (Bluesky), and Juliet Shen (ROOST / Columbia SIPA), moderated by Louis-Victor de Franssu (Tremau). A strategic deep-dive into the “Safety by Design” framework. Alongside leaders from Bluesky and ROOST, Jaz discusses the operational reality of scaling safety on distributed networks. The panel explores how nimble teams can navigate the EU Digital Services Act and UK Online Safety Act while honoring the core principles of user autonomy and decentralized decision-making
Thought-leader dialogue: Decentralizing social media (Online)
Jaz joins a panel of pioneers, including Bryan Newbold (Bluesky) and Christine Lemmer-Webber (Spritely Institute), to tackle the urgent challenges of governance and safety in federated systems. Hosted by Professor Aaron Shaw (Northwestern University / Harvard Berkman Klein Center), the discussion explores how independent networks can forge collective standards for content integrity and trust without central authority.
Creating Trustworthy Content Governance in Decentralized Social Media (DSMW, Princeton, NJ)
Jaz joins a select group of experts, including Lindsay Blackwell (Mozilla), Samantha Lai (Carnegie Endowment), and Evan Henshaw-Plath (Nos.social), to define the future of decentralized governance. The panel explores how to embed community values into technical protocols and addresses the “meta-governance” challenges of building collective safety frameworks that out-scale centralized systems.
