The promise of the internet was open knowledge and connection; the reality includes manipulation, abuse, and mistrust. This book confronts that gap with a practice-oriented guide to designing, analysing, and governing safer digital ecosystems.

Authored by experts across academia, industry, and government, it is organized around three pillars: (i) Safety by Design & Provenance, (ii) Threat Detection & Analysis, and (iii) Response & Mitigation, to embed safeguards, surface emerging harms, and execute effective incident response at scale. Chapters pair empirical studies with deployable techniques, from evaluation metrics and audits to governance and enforcement frameworks, situating technical advances within real-world constraints of cost, scale, privacy, equity, and culture.

This resource offers researchers, policymakers, platform builders, educators, and civil society a clear map of today’s landscape as well as a pragmatic agenda for what can and should come next: transparent provenance, robust measurement, and accountable interventions that earn user trust.