Local Bots, Global Norms: Discussing content moderation and chatbots in the APAC region

Date: Monday, Oct 13

Time: 10:15 - 10:45 (30 mins)

Session Types: Fireside Chat

This Fireside Chat explores the issue of how content moderation practices of LLM-powered chatbots may be shaping content governance norms across the APAC region. Deployed predominantly by companies based in the Global North, these technologies have been flagged for importing Anglocentric norms and values into moderation frameworks, potentially suppressing legitimate content and offering users limited mechanisms for grievance redressal. In doing so, they pose a fundamental challenge to the future of multistakeholder and inclusive governance of these technologies: Who gets to define their moderation policies? And how — and if at all — are regional languages and cultural contexts accounted for?
The session will first establish the context and rationale behind content moderation practices adopted by LLM-powered chatbots, focusing on what governance theories — if any — can justify deployment of such chatbots in online environments. Next, by centering experiences from the region and highlighting specific examples of content moderation decisions adopted by these chatbots, we will be discussing how the absence of multi-stakeholder dialogue has impacted their operation in diverse APAC jurisdictions. Finally, we will explore ideas about how academic and civil society stakeholders in the APAC region can meaningfully participate in shaping the norms embedded in these global systems.
We note that the questions surrounding the deployment of these chatbot systems bear close resemblance to more traditional platform governance and content moderation policy dilemmas — particularly related to critiques about both norm-setting and bargaining powers being primarily concentrated in the hands of companies at the Global North. Accordingly, throughout the session, we will also be exploring whether insights derived from previous platform governance discourses can be educational in the current context.

Moderators/Speakers: Aliya Bhatia, Torsha Sarkar