Slang dictionary
algospeak
[ al-goh-speek ]
What does algospeak mean?
Algospeak refers to coded language and euphemisms used on social media platforms to avoid having content removed or filtered by an algorithm.
Many websites, especially social media sites, use AI algorithms to moderate the large amount of content posted on their platforms. These algorithms often automatically flag or delete content that contains or mentions words or phrases that the algorithm has been programmed to recognize as being unacceptable.
However, this often causes algorithms to flag or remove permitted content that discusses sensitive issues or content that uses the “unacceptable” words without breaking any rules.
Being aware of this, many communities on social media use coded language, emoji, or euphemisms to avoid having their content removed by algorithms. The term algospeak refers to this language.
For example, people used terms like panoramic, panini, and panda express to refer to the COVID-19 pandemic after platforms began removing content that mentioned the pandemic to attempt to halt the spread of misinformation.
Some other examples of algospeak include using the word seggs instead of sex, the word accountants to refer to sex workers, the word unalive to refer to death or suicide, the corn emoji to refer to pornography, and the phrase leg booty to refer to the LGBTQ+ community.
Where does algospeak come from?
Algospeak combines algo- from the word algorithm with the word speak. Algospeak refers to coded language that people use (“speak”) to avoid being censored or moderated by AI algorithms.
The word algospeak was used as early as 2016 on social media. However, the term was obscure at the time.
All this social media algospeak reminds me of this 2011 TED talk: Beware online "filter bubbles" https://t.co/m4XEMH9VFM
— Joy (@Joylita) May 13, 2016
The term algospeak gained wider mainstream attention after it was featured in an April 2022 Washington Post article, which stated that the term and the algospeak “language” was popularized by TikTok users. This article in particular seems to have caused the term algospeak to gain wider attention in mainstream and social media, including from Urban Dictionary and The New York Times, as well as Twitter.
Examples of algospeak
Who uses algospeak?
The word algospeak is used on social media to refer to coded language used to avoid posts being removed or filtered by AI algorithms.
Somewhere between using SMS language to save time to using algospeak to save ourselves, we grew up
— Shephali Bhatt (@ShephaliBhatt) July 7, 2022
Unalive and self deletion is so dang clever and funny to me lol. I guess the term is called algospeak. I guess you got a maneuver around just to keep making content.
— Jabreakit Jubawdit (@Phive_Gawd) September 21, 2022
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of algospeak like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of algospeak that will help our users expand their word mastery.