Moderating Quechua Content on Social Media

In this project we seek to critically examine how content moderation systems operate in non-English contexts, particularly in indigenous and other languages of the Majority World (i.e., the Global South). This includes how social media platforms conduct analysis of user generated content, as well as processes for evaluation, enforcement, and appeals of content moderation decisions made by the platforms. This report examines these questions with a focus on Quechua or Runa Simi (as it is referred to in Quechua). We focus on the Quechua group of languages because they are indigenous, considered low-resource, and under-studied in terms of content moderation. This set of languages has a significant number of speakers, approximately 9-10 million, making it one of the most widely spoken indigenous languages in South America. Numerous languages and dialects fall under the Quechua family. In this study we focus on three major varieties spoken in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru (countries where a significant proportion of the population speak Quechua). Specifically: Central Quechua (e.g., Wanka, Ancash, Pataz), Southern Quechua (e.g., Chanka, Collao) and Quichua/Kichwa (e.g., Ecuador, Amazon). This report is part of a larger research project with complementary case studies in other low-resource languages — Maghrebi Arabic, Kiswahili, and Tamil. **Corresponding Author: research at cdt dot org.**