The Platform Question: Power, Accountability and Global South repositioned accountability on a democratic plane, contrasting sharply with top-down models where platforms are responsible to users. Such a framing promises a future of a horizontal network where everyone holds responsibility for collective well-being. As one participant wrote, accountability to her refers to an exercise that aims to “weave society and social networks”, emphasising the fact that digital platforms don’t exist outside the social fabric but within it and are therefore, subject to the same relational ethics that govern community life. Additionally, French’s “La justice, La vraie” (true justice) and Sinhala’s reference to reparations pushed accountability beyond mere explanation toward restitution. In shorthand, accountability without remedy is hollow. This transforms the concept from a corporate governance checkbox into a mechanism for addressing historical and ongoing injustices. When platforms shape democracy, spread information (and misinformation), and mediate social relationships across billions of people, accountability must encompass repair, not just acknowledgement. Some respondents noted there is “no specific translation” in their language, resorting to approximations or borrowed terms. This isn’t a linguistic deficiency but an essential revelation that platform accountability may be a fundamentally new problem, one that existing vocabularies of responsibility weren’t designed to address. 154 However, the most provocative question stemming from this collection is the chit that bore the words: “Accountability from/ for what? Implies a response to an action/event/structure”. This interrogation cuts to the temporal dimension of accountability – about how it is always retrospective, always addressing something that has already occurred or is currently occurring. It cannot be abstract; it must answer to specific harms, specific exercises of power, specific structural inequalities. The Untranslatable Core What’s striking about this multilingual constellation is what resists translation entirely. Some respondents noted there is “no specific translation” in their language, resorting to approximations or borrowed terms. This isn’t a linguistic deficiency but an essential revelation that platform accountability may be a fundamentally new problem, one that existing vocabularies of responsibility weren’t designed to address. Therefore, we must acknowledge the struggle to comprehend the exact nature of the reality that the digital turn has presented to us. The sheer fact that a word like “Utopia” appears in the list – perhaps hints at the truth that “Platform accountability” as currently imagined might still be an idealistic Platform Accountability: A Translation Experiment with Words, Meanings and People The Platform Question: Power, Accountability and Global South dream we carry within ourselves. Or maybe these diverse words offer building blocks for something new – say, a hybrid model of accountability that draws on multiple traditions, that sees platforms as simultaneously institutional and relational, technical and human, answerable to both law and community. We need to, therefore, recognise that the untranslatability of platform accountability has practical consequences since it defies traditional concepts of accountability, as understood in terms of an individual’s obligation to answer, community trust, or institutional transparency. For instance, policy frameworks designed in isolation, or in Northern regulatory contexts, may fail to resonate with marginalised users. The game of words across geographies reveals that platform accountability isn’t one thing but many things, each shaped by language, history, and social organisation. Studying how people describe, feel, and negotiate platform accountability in their own languages provides insight into the gaps between policy, corporate rhetoric, and everyday life. Only then can interventions be genuinely inclusive. We need to, therefore, recognise that the untranslatability of platform accountability has practical consequences since it defies traditional concepts of accountability, as understood in terms of an individual’s obligation to answer, community trust, or institutional transparency. Platform Accountability: A Translation Experiment with Words, Meanings and People 155