This is part 2 of “101 Ways AI Can Go Wrong” - a series exploring the interaction of AI and human endeavor through the lens of the Crossfactors framework.
View all posts in this series or explore the Crossfactors Framework
If you know, you know. And until then, you don’t.
Algospeak is coded language or modified terms, often with intentional misspellings, meant to discuss a sensitive topic online while evading detection by content moderation algorithms.
Why It Matters
Coded language is nothing new, but its need and use is being shaped by technology. Content is ranked and many serious topics are tightly controlled due to an impressionable audience and the inability of moderation algorithms to distinguish between a serious but constructive discussion and nefarious content that may glorify or otherwise inappropriately discuss the topic.
Real-World Example
In January 2025, “cute winter boots” was a term trending on TikTok and other platforms. One may initially think this refers to a seasonal item many of us need. In actuality, it references the wave of raids carried out by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on sanctuary cities. The acronym for this agency (ICE) is the apparent connection to the term, perhaps aided by the coincident seasonality.
Key Dimensions
Speed of trends: new terms that trend quickly can be favoured by ranking algorithms, which goes beyond the initial purpose of evading moderation. The existence of influencers with large followings helps speed up the trend.
Ethical dilemma: Platforms are to balance free speech with a need to curb harmful content.
Context collapse: Users unaware of the algospeak terms may misunderstand the intended meaning. Large language models need to be retrained or fine-tuned to include the new context that’s been created and may be short-lived.
Hijacking: Algospeak terms that are trending may hijack or overshadow the conventional meaning of the term.
Is algospeak only a concern for large social media platforms or users of these platforms? I don’t think so. Large companies have grown the use of their chat-based tools (Teams, Slack, etc) and while employees may seek to cloak topics for different reasons than TikTok users, these companies may see their monitoring tools react to coded language in unexpected ways.