Does AI Understand Arabic? Evaluating The Politics Behind the Algorithmic Arabic Content Moderation
Carr Center for Human Rights Policy research publications
17 Pages Posted: 5 Feb 2024
Date Written: August 1, 2023
Abstract
Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to be integrated into various domains and industries. Over the years, social media companies have utilized AI technologies to moderate users’ content, personalize recommendations, and overall user experience optimization. While machine learning models have been found effective in identifying and addressing harmful and violent content, a mounting number of concerns were raised regarding the bias and discriminatory decisions made by these models when applied to non-English content. In this paper, I zoom in on the AI-powered content moderation by Meta’s Facebook in relation to managing Arabic content. I argue that the Arabic content is subject to “inconsistent moderation”, meaning that some content will over-moderated, while other content will be left untouched despite violating the platforms’ standards. These inconsistencies have limited users’ ability to engage in meaningful political debates in the region. Put simply, Arabic-speaking users are now uncertain whether their content will be deleted or kept by the algorithm. This type of unclear and unexpected moderation has led to a social distrust towards AI tools and applications among Arab Internet users.
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