Africa, a continent rich in linguistic diversity with over 2,000 languages, faces challenges in moderating content on social media platforms. The report "Moderating Kiswahili Content on Social Media" highlights these issues, focusing on Kiswahili, a language spoken by over 100 million people in East and Central Africa.
The report reveals that social media companies have limited physical presence in Africa but invest heavily in outsourcing content moderation. Kiswahili is one of the few African languages benefiting from human moderation. The study examines how online platforms handle user-generated content in Kiswahili.
Kiswahili exists in many varieties across East Africa, including Kenya and Tanzania. Tanzania has the largest Kiswahili-speaking population and is the birthplace of Standard Swahili. Kenya, known as the "Silicon Savannah," hosts many digital technology companies.
Using surveys and interviews with social media users and moderators from Kenya and Tanzania, the report found Instagram to be the most popular platform, with TikTok rapidly gaining popularity. Misinformation and hate speech are significant concerns among users.
Social media platforms employ different approaches to moderate Kiswahili content: global, local, and multi-country. Meta uses a global approach with uniform policies for all Kiswahili users. TikTok's local approach considers cultural contexts within East Africa but often hires Kenyan moderators unfamiliar with other countries' nuances. JamiiForums employs a multi-country approach by hiring native moderators from each country to ensure understanding of local contexts.
Content moderation vendors often obscure job realities by not disclosing graphic content exposure during recruitment or training. Many moderators misunderstand their roles as they expect to be content creators rather than reviewers of potentially distressing material.
Most moderation is conducted by third-party vendors who hire Kenyans exclusively for Kiswahili services. This leads to inaccuracies due to variations in language context across regions.
The full report provides further insights into these findings.
