The trolls of 4chan have teamed up to Tweet their ways around being flagged or banned for filling our newsfeeds with racist remarks.
According to the Star-Telegram, there’s a new lingo that’s leading users of such services as Google, Yahoo and Skype to feel wary of mentioning them on social media. The code comes in response to Jigsaw, a Google program that was put in place to detect—and put a stop to—online harassment. Wired reports that the subsidiary’s Conversation AI software has the ability to zero in on hateful remarks with near-perfect accuracy.
“I want to use the best technology we have at our disposal to begin to take on trolling and other nefarious tactics that give hostile voices disproportionate weight,” Jigsaw founder and president Jared Cohen said.
Those “hostile voices” have certainly made themselves heard. According to BuzzFeed News, a group of 4chan users used the website’s message boards to discuss the idea of developing a code to get around Jigsaw’s efforts—i.e., to be racist without using overt slurs that could be found by a computer. Certain posts have since been deleted, but Twitter has yet to see the last of this scheme. Here’s a look at how it’s playing out on the Tweet screen.
Skype is a coded slur for the Jewish community.
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
And Google is their stand-in for the n-word.
Well, the easiest way to do that is to physically remove googles, skypes, and tacos. https://t.co/VwFopyr3yQ
— Deplorable Sir Pepe (@WhiteGuy__1488) September 30, 2016
And this isn’t even the first racism “code” on social media this year. Mic points out that so-called “echoes” are another coded version of anti-Semitism that’s been around for months now. The ((())) symbol singles out Jewish people, thus subjecting them to digital abuse.
Even worse? According to BuzzFeed and Mic, many of the posts and accounts making use of these codes are pro-Donald Trump for president.