Approaches to the social effects of computing have enumerated the harms done by AI, social media, and algorithmic decision-making on underrepresented communities in the United States and around the globe. This paper argues that enumerating harms and arguing for inclusion have to be unsettled. These approaches, while important, frame populations from the global South as victims whose existence is dominated by and divided from centers of power. Using examples from reddit and from the use of the ‘slash’ across coding languages, this paper analyzes the deep connections among places and populations that move across computing worlds through language, even while computing languages might provide resources for thinking through these connections.

In addition to this work-in-progress, we will also reference foundational readings on decolonization and the global South to frame the discussion. You can find those readings here.

Keywords: #decolonization #computing #slash #global_south #language

Hosted by Sareeta Amrute, Director of Research at Data & Society.

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