Table of Contents

• Resources
• Unintended Consequences
• Reappropriation

Lists of words considered rude, obscene, inappropriate. These lists could be used by client applications to either restrict or flag content for human review. Account creation workflows could choose to prohibit these usernames, or limit these usernames from interacting publicly until the account has been approved.

Resources

• Github repositories tagged “profanity filter”
• IFTAS Reserved Words List
• badwords.json (Darius Kazemi)
• Bluesky slurs list
• Shutterstock List of Dirty, Naughty, Obscene, and Otherwise Bad Words (over 25 languages)
• Public attitudes towards offensive language on TV and Radio: Quick Reference Guide (Ofcom)
• Words That Google Instant Doesn’t Like (2600)

Unintended Consequences

Be cautious when using word filters in any language. Known issues include:

• the Scunthorpe Problem, which describes the unintentional blocking or false positives where acceptable words contain unacceptable text strings e.g. assistance should not become ***istance;
• context concerns, especially where lived experience is being discussed, e.g. compare “you are a Slur” with “I was walking down the street and someone called me a Slur”;
• reappropriation, the cultural process by which a group reclaims words that were previously used to disparage of that group.

Reappropriation

• A Former Slur Is Reclaimed, And Listeners Have Mixed Feelings (NPR)
• The Slants on the Power of Repurposing a Slur (NY Times)
• How to stop baseballer’s name from reading like anti-Jewish slur (Times of Israel)
• Reappropriation (Wikipedia)