Digital Intersectionality and Marginalization in the Majority World

Abstract

The concepts of ‘intersectionality’ and ‘marginalization’ are empirical necessities in Majority World trust and safety research because the harms that Majority World users face are constituted by multiple systems of power, not by any one axis alone. In this context, marginalization operates at three registers simultaneously: the marginalization of Majority World users by platform infrastructure that are not inherently designed to accommodate their needs; the marginalization of Majority World communities when existing frameworks of harm do not acknowledge or recognize their lived experiences; and the marginalization of Global Majority scholarship by the field’s own institutional and review structures. In response, we initiated this special issue to explore Digital Intersectionality and Marginalization in the Majority World. Here we reflect on our editorial process, from the initial set of 59 submissions we received, to the 8 peer-reviewed papers that we ultimately accepted. We examine these published papers through the lens of intersectionality and marginalization before introducing them across three thematic clusters: moderation systems and AI infrastructure; platform governance; and gendered harm and queer safety. Across these, we corroborate a unifying structural insight: Global North safety frameworks often reproduce structural inequality when deployed in Majority World contexts. We also name an additional dimension of intersectionality that structures the issue itself: the intersection of academic knowledge production and industry practice that defines trust and safety research as a field, and that this journal was designed to sustain. We close with implications for journals, funders, and platforms, and with a reflection on our positionality as editors who are simultaneously Global North-based, Majority World-committed, and situated across the academic-industry divide. This special issue is a call to action for advancing research and practice on trust and safety issues in under-examined regions.