• Wild_Mastic@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      47
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      2 months ago

      Is this stupid trend of censoring words a USA thing? And why is it so popular? I’m legit wondering since I cannot understand.

      • Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        39
        ·
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        It’s a social media thing. Supposedly posts get deprioritized by the algorithm if they contain “family unfriendly” words like kill or drug references. No idea if it’s actually true or just a myth, but it’s why users edit out innocuous words in these screenshots.

        • Bezier@suppo.fi
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          43
          ·
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          I think the correct term is “advertiser unfriendly”.

          I wouldn’t be surprised if that was true though.

      • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        25
        ·
        2 months ago

        Lots of social media now deprioritizes “advertiser unfriendly” content. Especially TikTok. So, the response to that is to self-censor so that you still reach full engagement. It’s an arms race to keep swearing without the algorithms silencing you for doing so.

      • webghost0101
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        17
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        Depends, actual censorship of words exist worldwide.

        Pointless censorship however i have only seen in US and Japan, but both for very different types of content.

      • Vespair@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        2 months ago

        Honestly at this point it’s just engagement bait. Yes, the trend is awful and terrible and stupid, but also people cannot resist the temptation of calling that out as well, so now it serves double-duty of being easy comment farming (note: this applies more to places like reddit than here on Lemmy, but I’m speaking in generalities here).

        It’s a kind of damned if you do, damned if you don’t thing in terms of responding to this stupid self-censorship.

    • OpenStars@discuss.online
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      He’s protected from Her? It’s a sex thing.

      No wait, he’s protected from He - it’s even more of a sex thing.