Reference Document for trust.txt
If you want to use the trust.txt system, you do NOT have to read this Reference Document. That said, you will be comforted to know that it is here, and guides the way that this whole system works. If you have technical questions not answered elsewhere on the site, you should find answers here. If you would like to contribute to the next version of this document, please consider joining JournalList.
JournalList trust.txt spec by JournalList, Inc. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
May 20, 2020
Document released as draft by Journalist, Inc.
June 17, 2020
Added Microsoft, Digital Content Next and Snopes as reviewers.
June 29, 2020
Board approved and status moved from DRAFT to RELEASED.
September 29, 2020
Added “.well-known” recommendation.
Some small typos and language clarifications.
July 14, 2021
Added two variables: vendor= and customer=
Also added some clarifying language, and some small language fixes.
April 4, 2024
Added variable dealing with Artificial Intelligence: datatrainingallowed= For more on this, please see this blog post.
Also some additional changes for clarity and alignment with other standards.
July 11, 2024
Added instructions for a new system of incorporating trust.txt signals to social media pages using a trust://<domain>! format. The idea is to make it clear to users that a social media page is actually related to a URI that is claimed, so that bad actors will have less of an ability to publish social media pages associated with brands that they do not actually represent.
To make comments to be considered as changes to the Reference Document, you can use the comment form on the home page. Please be sure to include the draft version, page number, and any other information that will help us to make the changes you recommend.
Thank you very much.