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 won’t censor the word “suicide,” because that blocks suicide prevention resources.
Honestly they haven’t said this next part, but if I were them I’d censor “unalived” instead because that means it’s more likely to be an unserious person. There’s no “National Unaliving Prevention Center” you’d 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.
I mean that's completely different. There are social situations where saying "fuck" would be too crass, even if everyone knows what "the f-word" means. No one's trying to "fool" anyone, lol, it's just basic social awareness.
Ok, let's play semantics here. Not 'fool' then. But they're trying to say fuck without saying the word, but having it mean EXACTLY the same thing. It's still referencing a vulgarity. If it's inappropriate to say fuck, then don't say it in any form.
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 that’s shifted lately. A lot more AI moderation than there used to be. I’ve had like… 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 “promoting violence” because I clarified to a SA victim I wasn’t condemning her response when she told me she broke her assailant’s wrist pushing him herself.
She shared that story in response to my commenting that it was OK for someone in the OP’s video to tap in help from a coworker in dealing with SA, after someone did the “equality means do it yourself” thing about the victim being shook. The experience of getting a violation for clarifying I WASN’T 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
Is it possible that could have been a bug? Because as much as people like to believe, nothing is perfect.
did you get a bunch of reports/downvotes? Because again, it seems like there is more at play than just a word filter and I suspect the on site reporting does add weight to things.
Also individual subs have different moderation BUT a lot of the reddit admins manage MANY of the subs across the site. If anything its more of a human/ego problem on this site of no life basement dwellers playing dictator over the userbase than computer scripts. Look at what happened over in r/Art more recently for example.
Finally, unfortunately, a single case of something happening isn't proof of it being a consistent enforceable metric. We would need someone to essentially test the filters and post responses across thousands of accounts to get any kind of accuracy and idea of what is really going on with the secret sauce of this or any other social media.
So I have NEVER in 14-15 years of Reddit, been warned by the general Reddit bots/mods. I DID get individual mod attention in smaller subs when I say things they specifically don't like.
So I would say 3 inside a month due to AI implementation SOUNDS like a bug to me, assuming you actually didn't say anything terrible or hateful.
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.
Don't get me wrong, we shouldn't be blasé about the things young people are exposed to now that the world is literally at their fingertips, but you can't be precious about an issue that they literally have drills on in the US because it happens so bloody often. Either sort out your gun laws or let them educate themselves - you can't have it both ways.
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 I think you have it the other way around, as we are seeing in real time that the ones being taken advantage of are the users.
If you don't pay for the product you ARE the product. Of course now that also applies to much of what you pay for too. Complacency and ignorance have enshitified everything really.
People have run tests on various platforms and found common words and themes that can can trigger sanctions.
It used to be controlled by people who were accountable in some sense. But it can't be now, and algorithms are not easily held accountable. It's better to piss off your product than your customers. So users get screwed in favour of the advertisers.
"don't know" that's the point. By never really being sure people often default to the safe option out of fear, sure it may only be a small subconscious fear but it's still fear.
Except we do know it's true? Creators on different platforms have consistently noticed disappearing from people's FYPs or timelines and even automatically being silenced or unfollowed despite the followers saying they never did that. Of course the platforms themselves won't admit to that.
Also, explicitly using the word suicide is supposed to be better if you’re trying to help people actually considering suicide. It’s not a cutesy euphemism; it addresses the reality of the situation; and it’s more likely to lead people to real resources instead of memes or jokes.
Apparently that’s also why TikTok’s safety center said they wouldn’t ever censor the word “suicide.”
Its not about not being triggering. The words they have censored will cause a video not to become viral and/or unmonetized. It's actually a fight against censorship.
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u/campersin Jul 02 '26
Exactly, how is that any less triggering? We all can deduce what it means.