"Algospeak"

From Alexandra S. Levine's 9-19-22 FORBES article entitled "From Camping To Cheese Pizza, 'Algospeak' Is Taking Over Social Media":

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. Siobhan Hanna, who oversees AI data solutions for Telus International, a Canadian company that has provided human and AI content moderation services to nearly every major social media platform including TikTok, said “camping” is just one phrase that has been adapted in this way. “There was concern that algorithms might pick up mentions” of abortion, Hanna said.

More than half of Americans say they’ve seen an uptick in algospeak as polarizing political, cultural or global events unfold, according to new Telus International data from a survey of 1,000 people in the U.S. last month. And 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, Hanna said, followed by policies around violence and exploitation.

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. While machine learning can spot overt violative material, like hate speech, it can be far harder for AI to read between the lines on euphemisms or phrases that to some seem innocuous, but in another context, have a more sinister meaning.

To read the entire article, click HERE.