Algorithmic power and African indigenous languages

Search engine autocomplete and the global multilingual Internet

Bibliographic Data

ID11268813
AuthorsPeter Chonka (0000-0001-9871-1377, King's College London, corresponding author), Stephanie Diepeveen (0000-0002-5468-9312, University of Cambridge), Yidnekachew Haile (Royal Holloway University of London)
Year2023
Volume45
Issue2
Pages246-265
Publication date2023-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMedia Culture & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0163-4437 • E-ISSN: 1460-3675
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/01634437221104705
OpenAlexW4283322975
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited43

Predictive language technologies – such as Google Search’s Autocomplete – constitute forms of algorithmic power that reflect and compound global power imbalances between Western technology companies and multilingual Internet users in the global South. Increasing attention is being paid to predictive language technologies and their impacts on individual users and public discourse. However, there is a lack of scholarship on how such technologies interact with African languages. Addressing this gap, the article presents data from experimentation with autocomplete predictions/suggestions for gendered or politicised keywords in Amharic, Kiswahili and Somali. It demonstrates that autocomplete functions for these languages and how users may be exposed to harmful content due to an apparent lack of filtering of problematic ‘predictions’. Drawing on debates on algorithmic power and digital colonialism, the article demonstrates that global power imbalances manifest here not through a lack of online African indigenous language content, but rather in regard to the moderation of content across diverse cultural and linguistic contexts. This raises dilemmas for actors invested in the multilingual Internet between risks of digital surveillance and effective platform oversight, which could prevent algorithmic harms to users engaging with platforms in a myriad of languages and diverse socio-cultural and political environments

Amharic · Indigenous · Indigenous language · Internet privacy · Languages of Africa · Linguistics · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Public relations · Scholarship · Sociology · The Internet · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Social Media and Politics · Artificial Intelligence

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