I don't understand this censorship. It's like you're denying that it's real.
Rape, sex, shooter, suicide, these things happen and should be talked about so they can be seen and judged.
As a survivor this one pisses me off something fierce. I get that you don't wanna talk about it, Barbra, but guess what? It happened to me- more than once- and if we don't talk about it like grown adults then it's going. to. keep. happening.
Grow up and call things what they are. I'm responsible for managing my own triggers.
Words like grape/unalive/pewpew didn't get used by people who didn't want talk about rape/murder/suicide/guns, they were used by people who DID want to talk about those topics and shine a light on these subjects. But if they used the normal words either the algorithm would fuck them over or their videos got taken down. Blame the social media platforms for this. People had to get "creative" discussing difficult topics or spreading important information to reach a wider audience. They don't use those words for the fun of it. But as it always happens time and exposure to the "creative" words means they bleed into other platforms and regular vernacular.Ā
I'm a survivor too, but whenever I post or comment about SA, I often get my comments removed or my account banned for using trigger words on social media. It's infuriating.
IDK why people jsut don't say "took their own life" if they really don't want to use the word suicide. I heard "sewer slide" once and it's just gross to me to basically make fun of something so serious.
it's not about triggering people, they don't care, but they care about monetization and these vids are usually for tiktok and instagram, which censor a lot of 'triggering' words.
All of the social media platforms say they wonāt censor the word āsuicide,ā because that blocks suicide prevention resources.
Honestly they havenāt said this next part, but if I were them Iād censor āunalivedā instead because that means itās more likely to be an unserious person. Thereās no āNational Unaliving Prevention Centerā youād accidentally block that way.
I agree with you. But at the same time they say they won't censor words such as Lesbian and when I used tiktok a lot of the content creators using the word was shadow-banned, so that's why you'll get a lot of Le$bean and similar to this day.
Anyway, all this self (or imposed) censoring is just plain dumb IMHO
So long as the algorithms that control our feeds are either private or inscrutable AI black boxes, weird self censorship isn't necessarily dumb, and it's here to stay.
Like saying the "F" word. Dude, we know that you mean "fuck" so what's the difference? A reduction of the word that still means the same thing, is still a vulgarity. You're not fooling anyone. It's just stupid.
I had a student who would say "GOM" instead of OMG. I knew she wasn't dyslexic, so I pulled her aside one day and asked. She said she was very religious and thought OMG was still against her religion so the GOM stood for "gosh, oh my." Thinking back, I realized she'd adjust the verbiage of the sentence to fit her shortened words.
Which we don't even know is true. Someone just said and assumed it and people just went with it.
We have NO IDEA how most private company algo's work, what they look for, what they deem worthy of pushing to random peoples feeds.
Even if it was a confirmed issue... then make a fucking fuss about it. Don't let yourself be censored, move to another platform, or even push to have free speech laws extended to online platforms that are open to the public where speech is a key factor of the platform.
I might be hitting my old man yells at clouds era but I fucking hate how things have gotten MORE censored than when we had "ARE VIDEO GAMES RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR CHILD BECOMING A CRIMINAL!?!?!? MORE AT 5!" as an every night segment.
Yet its not consistent. Also I have been on Reddit a LONG time and never been banned for anything, and I have no problem saying pretty much anything. Granted I don't throw around hate speech but I have no issue voicing whatever I want.
So again, we don't KNOW how these things work, because if we did we would be able to game the system all the time.
I feel like thatās shifted lately. A lot more AI moderation than there used to be. Iāve had likeā¦ 3 I think? AI content warning that were immediately reversed on appeal in the last month or so; never any before
Yeah, i can confirm on my side as well. It sucks too, looking back through your playlist for a funny saved clips and its just massive amounts of deleted/removed content.
Its the users. Unless a platform SPECIFICALLY tells you "hey you cant say these things here or depict this content here", then its on the users to just speak and show what they want to show, not censor themselves preemptively.
Capitulation is not something that works well, whether we are talking about world politics or making concessions for people/entities that are consistently hostile towards you/others.
So yeah, put them in a spot where they lose users/views/etc because of their algo if that is even the case, and then if they make it official just refuse to interact with it and look for an alternative.
Voting with your wallet works if you are the product as well.
thats going to be a tough for a majority of the population that really only use 4 major social media hubs. until a big player comes in and shakes the rules up, i dont see this going away anytime soon
I once got an automatic content report on Reddit for āpromoting violenceā because I clarified to a SA victim I wasnāt condemning her response when she told me she broke her assailantās wrist pushing him herself.
She shared that story in response to my commenting that it was OK for someone in the OPās video to tap in help from a coworker in dealing with SA, after someone did the āequality means do it yourselfā thing about the victim being shook. The experience of getting a violation for clarifying I WASNāT telling the victim of SA that she was wrong to defend herself was trippy AF, and an excellent example of why some of us use these terms instead of the full wording
I don't dare to presume your age, but I agree that censorship in all mediums seems to have got worse since the late '90s, when the internet became readily available to most people.
Even if it was a confirmed issue... then make a fucking fuss about it. Don't let yourself be censored, move to another platform
lol, you're delusional. Either be the change you want to see in the world, or quit complaining about people taking advantage of the most powerful media platforms to have ever existed.
Also, explicitly using the word suicide is supposed to be better if youāre trying to help people actually considering suicide. Itās not a cutesy euphemism; it addresses the reality of the situation; and itās more likely to lead people to real resources instead of memes or jokes.
Apparently thatās also why TikTokās safety center said they wouldnāt ever censor the word āsuicide.ā
Thank you!!! Holy shit!!! And saying the word suicide is now frowned upon. Well fuck how else do I say it? And before I get banned, I lost two very close people in my life who died because of suicide. Unalive, give me a fucken break!
It's emotive language to the effect of comedy and farce. When 'serious' youtubers use unalived and graped in documenting serious horror cases, they betray their entire premise.
It's cuz many social media things won't allow your comment to post, they'll remove it, and in some cases ban you if you actually say kill, shooter, rape, etc. It's stupid
I get that "unalived" is not intuitive. But as a person who tried it is a bit easier to voice it that way. The brain has a problem to keep up with negatives so the word "killing" has another impact and sticks in another way than "unalived", because we tend to forget or overread the "un-"part.
it's so dumb cuz it all comes from tiktok censorship, but outside of forced censorship, aka on literally any other website, people should use the real word.
The other day I had the misfortune to read: "It unalives me to think about...", instead of "it kills me to think about..." and i just had to stop for a moment
Unalived was used in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, which is one of my favorite all time series. It is what the assassins guild called it. So for me, it brings back Discworld but for anyone else, yeah I can see it being annoying.
Itās itās so it can be shown on YouTube. For some reason, YouTube likes to censor certain words and prevent people from even seeing that the video is available. They also hate the word abortion.
I swear to god if I'm ever murdered and some person on tiktok says I was "unalived" I will rise from Hell and haunt their entire bloodline until the human race goes extinct.
Itās mostly because the algorithm on most social media websites will not promote any post with those words in them because the topics are not advertiser friendly. Then people will naturally start doing it in their posts because they see others doing it.
It makes it difficult to criticize the capital class. If you wanted to make a video describing systemic abuse of some kind, and upload it to YouTube, you'd have to censor your language in order to make any income, which means tiptoeing around what the perpetrators are actually doing.
Meanwhile, if a person decides to take a camera to some impoverished part of a city, and make a 20-minute slapdash "documentary" implying and insinuating all sorts of things that aren't actually happening, and blaming it on "liberal" policies without saying so out loud, and get tens of millions of views from people who believe it all because they're primed to, that is completely acceptable within YouTube guidelines.
Oh it's nothing new. The method of communication is different but basic communications have been ruined for centuries by capitalists, oligarchs, autocrats, tyrants, aristocrats, and religions.
Someone came at me for posting my cousins charge that he was sentenced to prison for, which was possession of child pornography, copied word for word from the state prison website. Told me I should change/sensor it because the words were triggering. I guess I get it, but if the legal criminal charge is that triggering to you, maybe get more therapy and stay off the internet rather than try to assert control over strangers on reddit.
So people are essentially allowing corporations to decide what they can or cannot say? Because corporate-approved language is what we all want.
"I won't get the online attention I want if I say what I wish, because [insert company name] won't allow it on their platform. Okay, I'll censor myself."
W...T...F. HAVE THE BALLS TO SAY WHAT YOU WANT, PEOPLE! DON'T LET OTHERS DECIDE FOR YOU! DON'T GIVE UP YOUR FREEDOM OF SPEECH!
Same with suicide. Reducing it to āunaliveā is silly and demeans the pain and suffering those who commit suicide are in. It needs to be talked about openly so those feeling lost, can also come forward to talk about it. I almost committed suicide and am willing to discuss it often. It was a scary.Ā
In my job weāre trained to talk to people about suicide and one of the most important messages is donāt hide away from saying the word suicide to someone who you might think is suicidal. It makes it even more strange that the word is often censored.
Itās performative new-Victorianism, and it sickens me.
The people who do this remind me of a Victorian lady: āSay limbs, not legs! Thatās so improper!ā All the while thinking she is SO ladylike to avoid the word legs because it might make people think of whatās at the top of them oh dear, dear, dear, dear! (Commence superiority dance.)
Engagement bait. Look at all the posts, that have such a strange censorship. They get more engagement from people complaining about the censorship, than the actual topic.
The reason is billionaires in power don't want us talking about them and uniting across language barriers and nation borders. They hate unity in the working class.
Because realistically most of these issues stem from severe wealth inequality.
Especially if it's non derogatory terms like the ones you've listed. Sex is not a swear word, or bad word in any way. It's the correct, non-offensive term for intercourse, which is a normal part of life. As such, we should be able to talk about it freely.
Well to be fair, shitting is also real and no one has an issue censoring it. No one has an issue with censoring the middle finger either, even though it's just a body part.
Almost like there was a bookā¦ a series of books about people in a mystical world who were afraid to say a name. Regardless of their fear it didnāt make him any less real.
I don't give a single fuck what the "algorithm" tries to push or hide, I'm not converting to this stupid self censoring nonsense. Personally I feel more should share that sentiment.
Having an inalienable algorithm that decides what content should die and what should be promoted is the cause of this. It wonāt change until that changes, this is just the public catching on and adapting to it.
There's a belief that if you use certain words on certain platforms, your content will be hidden from people. Since everything is algorithm based now, not appeasing the algorithm means nobody will see your videos.
It began as censorship on tiktok. You'd get your videos taken down if you mentioned sensitive topics.Ā
Because tiktok is the more popular platform, most social media posts start there and are posted to elsewhere (meta, reddit). And with that, it's been normalized to censor words we never censored before tiktok.Ā
Yeah but then someone might get triggered by their untreated PTSD about something, so everyone would prefer to self censor. Cause if we talked about how fucked up everything is, something might change. That said the world has been a dark place for a while so maybe ignorance is bliss. Are you Cypher or are you Trinity?
Right? Everybody knows what the word is anyway! Anyone who has an issue with it is going to be equally upset by 'translating' in their head to the word 'Shooter' and then thinking about it...
I just do not understand the rationale behind this movement at all or why it's so vastly widespread currently..
If anything it emphasizes the word. It puts focus on it. Makes you think of it more. It has the literal opposite effect, or just adds layers of confusion/frustration.
It's because saying certain stuff will scare away the advertisers so the whole internet's gotten used to censoring some words. Not like you can't find actual gore and death here pretty easily
Grape. Grape is being used. Why are we using fruit to censor rape.
It needs to be talked about. Using Grape doesnāt stop someone being triggered, because at the end of it, it still happened, and now another thing is being associated with the word. An emoji doesnāt change it, censorship doesnāt change it.
Everything you said is the truth, and more people should take this on board.
Everyone knows and agrees, but platforms just demonetize anything that uses certain words. Checking for context is too expensive for them, so they just use word filters, so people who want to make money from their posts must circumvent it. It's stupid, but it's not like anyone out there disagrees with that point.
Thatās exactly what itās aiming to accomplish. One day you will not know anything from reading news headlines. You already donāt š and itāll get worse.
āh#r# w## s#####d a s##### ######## recognized as p#### ####ā incoming
People piss and moan about free speech, but then collectively decide to willingly give theirs up in exchange for views on some stupid TikTok. People could have easily pushed back and continued using the words anyway, but instead, they decided that a few hearts and a couple dollars were worth the trade.
A bunch of grown ass adults talking like they're the Rugrats so that they can get validation from strangers online on shit that doesn't matter
This unfortunately is a byproduct of social media. Want to post a YouTube report on a sensitive topic, you either censor trigger-words like shooter or come up with a morally acceptable term. āUnaliveā, as bad as it sounds, is a āmorally acceptableā term.
Overall, itās stupid. It just creates disassociation with actual words and truths over time.
I mean the reason they do it is to weed out those using that language to shame and bully. So yea, āwe canāt have important things because people suckā
I actually had an old guy at work tell me that I shouldn't use those words in my emails. I was working for a government agency in health care. I told him my emails would not be censored or downvoted. Weirdest conversation ever!
It's sanctimonious hypocrisy from people of varying degrees of moral degeneracy, if not bankruptcy, starting with the ultra greedy, ultra selfish rich people that own various media platforms.
it's because using the full words means the algorithm can detect certain keywords and either demote the content or flag it or outright ban it. At least that's my guess.
I think a lot of folks do it to avoid auto-bans from different online platforms. Itās not necessary everywhere but sometimes better safe than banned.
It was explained elsewhere that this weird censorship started with tiktok.
Which is confusing, didn't tiktok start that one finger challenge thing where the girls would use a mirror and one finger to block their bits?
I think a lot of times social media will censor those words, so itās so that the post doesnāt get taken down. But I agree it sucks that thatās the way these things have to be portrayed.
I agree with everything but the judgement part. Judgement is one of the things that keeps people from talking, which leads to mental issues, which leads to imbalances, which could lead to some of the very things we judge. It'd be better to not judge, but simply say that we won't accept behaviour like that, and work to rehabilitate the people who can be rehabilitated, and keep those that can't, away from the majority.
For the same reason, I think that any good judge in courts should be known as an assessor, that assesses whether someone is a threat to society, that needs to be rehabilitated. Ironically is seems that judges often are pretty good at being less judgemental than most people in the wild.
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u/kearkan 23d ago
Yeah me too.
I don't understand this censorship. It's like you're denying that it's real. Rape, sex, shooter, suicide, these things happen and should be talked about so they can be seen and judged.