Do you speak Algospeak? This word, a bit barbaric, designates a trend that has taken hold on social networks. In order to avoid having its content deleted, Internet users have invented their own coded language to slip through the cracks of the moderators. Don’t panic, we’ll explain!
This phenomenon is omnipresent on social networks. To avoid having his comment or video deleted on social networks, users were clever enough to invent their own language. The method is simple: replace a word that can be detected by the moderation system of the platforms with another totally different one, an emoji, or even by deliberately making a mistake in the spelling of the word. This is called algospeak.
It was notably after the repeal of Roe v. Wade in the United States, which has restricted the right to abortion for women in certain states, that this technique has been used worldwide. For fear of seeing their account banned on the platforms, users have simply spoken of “camping” to invite pregnant women who need to have an abortion to come and stay in states authorizing this intervention.
A sometimes controversial use
In addition to diverting words for a solidarity purpose, Internet users have long since replaced certain sensitive words to avoid being censored. This is particularly the case for words like “suicide” or “sex”, replaced by the formula “withdraw one’s life” or even the deliberately misspelled word “seggs”.
The trick also serves to amuse the gallery. In 2021, tiktok players decided to replace the “bursts of laughter” emoji with the chair emoji, to create a joke between young Internet users.
But algospeak can also be used to share controversial and banned ideas on social networks. Antivax recently used the “carrot” emoji to refer to the word “vaccine”, in order to list the side effects of the vaccine against Covid-19.
In 2021, transphobic users had used the black and orange square emojis to draw the acronym “SS”, short for “Super Straight”, and openly display their transphobia on TikTok.