Why Instagram's Moderation Misses Abuse in Hinglish, Punjabi and Bangla — And What Indian Creators Can Do About It
The problem no one at Meta talks about
A 14-year-old creator in Delhi posts a dance reel. Within ten minutes, her comment section fills with this:
tu toh bilkul kutta hai re bc sabko gaali deta hai
oye paaji tere baap da ki haal 🤡
ei meyera chobi ta ekdom bhalo na 💀
Three comments. Three languages. Zero detected by Instagram’s automated moderation.
The first is Hinglish — Roman-script Hindi laced with a common slur (“kutta”) and an abbreviation for a severe profanity (“bc”). The second is Romanized Punjabi, sarcastic and threatening. The third is Banglish (Romanized Bengali), a body-shaming remark that a Bengali speaker reads as cruel but an English model reads as gibberish.