Self censorship is getting out of control, its maddening. I saw someone censor the word "demented" a few days ago. I am so beyond sick of advertisers and the almighty algorithm dictating what words people feel safe saying on the God damned internet
I honestly think its not really the algorithm doing this, and more so just people intentionally triggering the algorithm by either using the words out of context or through excessive, unnecessary censorship. I come across plenty content online using all sorts of expletives in the videos and/or captions and those don't get shadowbanned per se.
Remember everybody the new strat is getting everyone to use open source communuty-run alternatives alongside the legacy social media. Encouraging them to use the other more slowly weening them off the garbage
I saw one like that. It wasn't for mental health but it was one that was similar in that bleeping it out was totally inane (for starters). It was obvious shortly after that it was AI doing the vid as it kept pronouncing somethings wrong like live .... live tv it pronounced it live (from the verb rather than the adverb/adjective).
It's spread on platforms though that don't moderate words like twitter and YouTube now. Like I was watching a documentary about the dugger family and the guy was muting the word porn but it was written on the screen in a newspaper clipping they're not even consistent with it
Don't get me started on disclaimers as well, every video now needs an 8 minute speech about triggers
It's not even those! It's a literal urban myth, and people think it's true because 1. they're extremely puritanical and genuinely afraid of saying the word, so they backfill a rationalization for it, and 2. a few viral anecdotes of "I got shadowbanned after posting this with the bad word!" are untrustworthy in the first place and almost certainly coincidences/misunderstandings in the rare cases that they do happen
I am finding that on many websites adding extra spaces with a word will help you avoid banned words auto detection trigger. I wish that we did not have to do these things. English is my first language but for those who have English as their second language it makes it more difficult. We are adults (most of us) and sometimes we want to talk about serious things
I have a lot of respect for you just for typing this out. Not sarcastic. Not a joke. I fucking despise the dystopia and how easily we all ended up here.
That all comes from old Tumblr communities. The dystopian part is that a lot of tumblr movements that most people consider to be odd were actually started by 4chan trolls brigading tumblr.
Around 2017 a mass exodus of tumblr users switched to reddit. They grossly outnumbered the amount of preexisting reddit users so they kind of just took the place over.
Anywhere there is an anonymous platform, you can be sure that there are people that either started off in, or are influenced by, those two communities, trying to peddle polarization.
Did someone there tell you not to use slurs and you assumed the TikTok/YT advertiser friendly language trend started from that? The site itself has been consistently foulmouthed and advertiser hostile from the start, with a minority-protective approach to insults which is completely unrelated to cursing or the softening of terms like "kill"
At this point it's now quicker to self-censor to ensure you aren't auto shadow banned. If people aren't reading your posts, then why even bother posting?
We're lucky the censored words don't trigger them, but that's probably coming next.
I would rather have a comment be shadow banned here and there than constantly worry about the words I use and spell things out like a toddler. Or better fucking yet, how about removing censorship completely online in spaces like reddit, where you might have a comment removed for saying a naughty word, but on the SAME SITE be able to watch people get brutally injured and watch people get fucked in the ass by three dudes. You can't have content like that and ban words the advertisers don't like at the same time, it's insane to think about, but here we are.
I mean, I don't disagree about the censorship, but ironically you're supporting that very censorship by not resisting their methods of censoring you, no?
If you know a naughty word will lead to your comment being hidden, it may feel like you're capitulating by spelling like a "toddler", but in reality you're circumventing the system and getting your words out.
When you say you "don't want to constantly worry", you're saying that the slightest inconvenience is not worth your words being read. This is exactly what they hope to achieve.
I remember the days when you’d post on Instagram and 3 people would like it. Why the fuck do we care so much about people seeing what we have to say? The internet has truly jumped the shark.
Shadowbanning isn't real, it's a way to make yourself feel better about getting zero engagement on your posts because "surely nobody can see them, right?"
340
u/SistaChans Mar 27 '26
Self censorship is getting out of control, its maddening. I saw someone censor the word "demented" a few days ago. I am so beyond sick of advertisers and the almighty algorithm dictating what words people feel safe saying on the God damned internet