#Handpicked: met geheimtaal het algoritme voor de gek houden
Fascinerend artikel. Kennelijk is het zo dat algoritmes bepaalde posts of uitingen niet pushen op social media als ze bepaalde woorden bevatten. Met name op TikTok is dat belangrijk. En sinds mensen daar achter zijn, proberen ze het algoritme te omzeilen met hun eigen verhullende woordenschat.
Unlike other mainstream social platforms, the primary way content is distributed on TikTok is through an algorithmically curated “For You” page; having followers doesn’t guarantee people will see your content. This shift has led average users to tailor their videos primarily toward the algorithm, rather than a following, which means abiding by content moderation rules is more crucial than ever.
When the pandemic broke out, people on TikTok and other apps began referring to it as the “Backstreet Boys reunion tour” or calling it the “panini” or “panda express” as platforms down-ranked videos mentioning the pandemic by name in an effort to combat misinformation. When young people began to discuss struggling with mental health, they talked about “becoming unalive” in order to have frank conversations about suicide without algorithmic punishment. Sex workers, who have long been censored by moderation systems, refer to themselves on TikTok as “accountants” and use the corn emoji as a substitute for the word “porn.”
Internet ‘algospeak’ is changing our language in real time, from ‘nip nops’ to ‘le dollar bean’ — www.washingtonpost.com To avoid angering the almighty algorithm, creators on TikTok and other platforms are creating a new vocabulary.