Invisible Algorithms, Visible Earth: Algorithmic Suppression, Platform Affordances, and Environmental Communication in Sindh, Pakistan

Abstract

The study investigates how algorithmic infrastructures on social media platforms mediate climate communication in Sindh, Pakistan. Using a mixed-method methodological approach: algorithmic audits, digital storytelling, and participatory design, the research finds that local climate content is systematically deprioritized in favour of narrative on emotional and global scalable issues. This undermines public understanding, silences indigenous environmental knowledge, and erodes collective resilience to climate impacts. Against this, users build creative workarounds through culturally embedded aesthetics and participatory features, presenting a vision for reform that is grounded in lived experience. The study argues that meaningful environmental communication by the Global South must envision restructuring platforms' governance, algorithmic transparency, and co-designed tools. The research weighs into critical conversations around media infrastructures, affective publics, and digital justice with an insistence on creating inclusive systems that operate with local realities.