Oblique Line of the Day: Here’s Your Chance To Get in on the Ground Floor! What ‘Algo’ Euphemism Would You Like To Create?

From Camping To Cheese Pizza, ‘Algospeak’ Is Taking Over Social Media
Forbes | September 19, 2022 | Alexandra S. Levine

If you’ve seen people posting about “camping” on social media, there’s a chance they’re not talking about how to pitch a tent or which National Parks to visit. The term recently became “algospeak” for something entirely different: discussing abortion-related issues in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Social media users are increasingly using codewords, emojis and deliberate typos—so-called “algospeak”—to avoid detection by apps’ moderation AI when posting content that is sensitive or might break their rules.

Almost a third of Americans on social media and gaming sites say they’ve “used emojis or alternative phrases to circumvent banned terms,” like those that are racist, sexual or related to self-harm, according to the data. Algospeak is most commonly being used to sidestep rules prohibiting hate speech, including harassment and bullying.

We’ve come a long way since “pr0n” and the eggplant emoji. These ever-evolving workarounds present a growing challenge for tech companies and the third-party contractors they hire to help them police content.

Oblique Line of the Day: Here’s your chance to get in on the ground floor! What ‘algo’ euphemism would you like to create?

34 Comments

  1. Rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperadoes, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, s**t-kickers and Methodists

    As a euphemism for the Democrat Party.

  2. Respeak – the tendency for central governance to overestimate their own intelligence and underestimate the ease at which their governance is subverted.

    Who could have imagined that banned thoughts can simply be expressed with new words? Anyone with two tent poles in their bicycle, of course.

  3. In the actual spirit of this we should be using terms we know won’t be banned. For instance if we want to talk about going trap shooting this weekend, we should instead say, let’s meet up at the NAMBLA event. And if, for instance, we want to talk about election fraud….oh wait. That one’s okay as long as they are the ones saying it…

  4. Serfing the web = Destroying the middle class and erasing White culture and history.

    Worse than Hitler = Our NAZI tactics are not getting the desired results and Conservatives are going to gain control.

    Whoopi Goldberg’s thong = Describing a Black Hole to a first-grader or where tax dollars go to a constituent.

  5. G.O.A.T. B.= For all those involved in the prosecution and incarceration of people from J6, still locked up as political prisoners, while murderers and rapists make bail within hours.
    “G.O.A.T.B.”= Greatest of All Tyranical Basturds..

  6. I’m too old to mess with this nonsense. Since I’m neither racist or a bigot, I don’t need “code words” to say what I mean. If someone doesn’t like what they say they are welcome to NOT read it, ignore me or don’t follow me or “unfriend me”. I’ve got a large number of “friends” that I don’t even know or understand how they got to be my “friend” so I have few cares to give about losing any. I’m not a twit, I don’t “do” Instagram or Snapchat or Tik Tok (mostly because I’m not a fan of zuckerberg or china). I say what I mean, and I mean what I say. Like it or lump it because it’s not going to change.

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