Social media users have generated code-words for racist, bigoted, homophobic and all sorts of insensitive slurs to facilitate uncensored discussions online.
The code-words like ‘Google’, ‘Skittle’ and ‘Yahoo’ have substituted offensive terms used to describe black people, Muslims and Mexicans, for a number of users looking to post nasty, insensitive comments without facing account suspension.
Racist Trump twitter has come up with a new coded way to share racial slurs w/ each other and avoid account suspension. pic.twitter.com/J4AmaHFVCd
— Alex Goldman (@AGoldmund) October 1, 2016
Carlos Galindo-Elvira, the regional director for the Anti-Defamation League in Arizona, told 12 News that the substitute words are meant to dodge the system by delivering an impact without being intentional.
The code is believed to have come in response to Google’s Jigsaw program, an Al-driven approach for combating harassment and abuse online, that triggered the online message board 4chan to trick Google into filtering out its own name by using ‘Google’ as a derogatory slur for black people, reports The Telegraph.
‘Skittle’, on the other hand is an obvious reference to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s tweet where he compared Syrian Refugees to poisoned skittles. Several users who have been found to be using the codes have expressed support for Trump.
Trump is not a National Socialist.
If he was, he wouldn’t have kids that married skypes. Also he wouldn’t be an ultracapitalist. https://t.co/CKHPeIXD0z— Deplorable Sir Pepe (@WhiteGuy__1488) October 1, 2016
USA Today not wanting people to vote trump is as shocking as a Skypes loving shekels pic.twitter.com/H26df0xe0r
— ⚔Sir Isaac Putin⚔ (@PunchyMcgregor) September 30, 2016
Damn #Googles #Yahoos & #Skittles!#MAGA #MAWA #AltRight #Trump #Duke4Senate https://t.co/qyCoA6y8sy
— Herr Doktor Reich (@sunwheelz) September 24, 2016
Trump just doxed the Fed. You skypes about to get audited in 6 months. This is your notice. #debatenight #debates
— Leroy Jenkems (@Leroy_Jenkems) September 27, 2016
This is not the first time that users have developed social media codes for making bigoted comments. Earlier this year, it was discovered that certain racial communities were placing Jewish names in “(((triple parentheses)))” to identify and target them online.
(Feature image source: Free Stock Photo)