Before you read about algospeak, check out the following vocabulary words.
VOCABULARY
portmanteau – a word formed by combining parts of other words.
flagged – to be identified or marked
amount to – add up to
off limits – prohibited
shadow banned – blocking content from being seen by others, without the user knowing that it is occurring or why
demonetize – to divest of monetary value/to block earnings (earnings = revenue)
crude – rudimentary
picked up – adopted
struggle – difficulty/a fight against something or someone
suicidal ideation – to think about or contemplate suicide
read between the lines – understand what is implied, but not expressed directly
pick up on – understand something that is not obvious
forbidden – prohibited
conceal – hide
the advent – the beginning of something important
repealed – rescinded, taken away
naughty – disobedient or indecent
deemed – considered to be
to address – to direct attention to
you had better – you must
NSFW – online content that is ‘Not Safe for Work’
READING
The word algospeak is a portmanteau for ‘algorithm speak’. It refers to words, phrases and emojis that people invent to avoid using terms that are flagged for censorship on social media.
Sites like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch and YouTube are attempting to moderate their platforms and to remove content that is against the law, like hate speech, terrorism, and child pornography, and against their community standards, like nudity and ‘misinformation’. However, so far, monitoring systems amount to little more than algorithms that target a list of ‘bad’ words, and a small, overworked staff of human moderators. The result is that entire topics, and important discussions that people want to have, and should have, are off limits. And to make matters worse, users often don’t know what words are on the list and that will result in having their sites and posts removed, or shadow banned and demonetized.
To get around this crude system, users and content creators intentionally misspell, replace and play with banned words. ‘Kill’? ‘Murder’? Yup, these are ‘bad’ words, and it’s been ages since gamers invented the word unalive to avoid being flagged. The term was picked up by people who wanted to talk about their struggles with suicidal ideation. Unalive has been used so much that it has found its way into some English dictionaries as an official verb, as in “I need help. I want to unalive myself”.
Aesopian language is a literary technique that invites readers to read between the lines, and pick up on the subversive meaning of a text. It has been used to communicate forbidden ideas and to conceal dissent long before the advent of the Internet. Algospeak, a modern form of aesopian language, is used by people who live under oppressive regimes like the Communist Party of China, when they want to speak critically about their governments and avoid brutal retaliation. Currently, in the US, where abortion rights are being repealed, people who want to assist others to get abortions refer to it as camping.
But even people who are engaging in every day, legal activities, who live in democracies and who supposedly have the right to free speech have to resort to algospeak. Entire topics of conversation are deemed suspicious and the content creators penalized. It’s a case of throwing the baby out with the bath water. Sex is legal, and there are countless valid conversations to be had about it. But online, people have learned to avoid using the word, and refer to it as seggs, for example. Why on earth do people need to do this? Have you been attacked and need help, or want to talk about how to address the prevalence of sexual assault in your community? Nope, the folks who control the algorithms don’t like that. Better to refer to it as SA or mascara. Are you a lesbian? Better not say the word, or you’ll be shadow banned. Better to refer to le dollar bean. Confused about the Pandemic, or critical of how it was handled? The word ‘pandemic’ got put on the naughty list, so better to say the panda express. Want to talk about racism as a societal problem? Okay, but you had better find a way to do it without using the words ‘white people’. At the moment, the new word online is YT.
And of course, these invented terms are easy enough to spot and flag as well, given enough time. Which in turn means that people come up with even newer terms, or adopt more terms and symbols that mean what they already mean, as well as something new. So a sunflower emoji might refer to a sunflower, or it might mean Ukraine. A cheeto might mean the snack, or it might mean Donald Trump. An accountant may be someone who helps you with your finances, or it might mean a sex worker. When humans can misunderstand one another at the best of times, how does this growing list of censored words help us? Where does it end?
That average people can no longer use normal words to communicate about normal aspects of their lives is NSFW, as in, not safe for words. The current system is, in a word, dumb… oops, I mean it’s the opposite of smart… or fish… or bottle cap… or…
COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
1.) What are automated content moderators designed to achieve? What problems are they trying to solve?
2.) How are they addressing these problems?
3.) What does the author think is problematic about their approach?
4.) Based on the context, what do you think the expression ‘throwing the baby out with the bath water’ means?
CONVERSATION QUESTIONS
1.) Do you think online content should be controlled and censored? Why or why not?
2.) What, if anything, should be censored?
3.) How effective is automated content moderation at this point, in your opinion?
4.) What do you think about the practice of shadow banning?
5.) How do you predict that content moderation will change in the near future?
6.) Who, if anyone, should be in control of what is censored?
7.) What is ‘misinformation’? Who should be in charge of determining what is true?
8.) What would an ideal social media site be like, in your opinion?
References and further reading:
Lifehacker – All the Social Media ‘Algospeak’ You Don’t Understand
Forbes – From Camping to Cheese Pizza, ‘Algospeak’ Is Taking Over Social Media
The Washington Post – Algospeak Is Changing Our Language In Real Time
Moderating Online Content or Silencing Dissent? – United Nations Human Rights
Why it’s Time to Stop Worrying about the Decline of the English Language – The Guardian
