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points by bbg2401 15 hours ago | 0 comments

It’s neither censorship nor banning. It’s simply not autocompleted.

This is exactly censorship via omission. What could possibly be the intent here other than to discourage use of these phrases across wide swaths of the population.

[–] jerf 15 hours ago

Making it so they aren't in the pool of errors that can be made. I want to be able to type swear words, but I don't want profanity to come out when I try to swipe "duck". Socially, emotionally, and politically loaded phrases make sense to require a bit more care for.

That is a general answer to your question. It is not a specific defense of the particular word list in question. But I can say I've been surprised a few times about what I accidentally swiped on Android. Bitch isn't swipable but I have "bitchiest" readily available, for instance.

[–] Jtarii 14 hours ago

Then have "child friendly mode" be an option and the adults can have "fuck" back. This isn't a difficult design problem.

This is just the type of thing that makes everyone hate modern technology.

[–] wat10000 7 hours ago

I like having a phone that doesn't spontaneously insert "fuck" into my messages because it thought I might mean that. That could lead to some unfortunate situations. When I want to use the word I'm perfectly capable of typing it.

[–] noitpmeder 15 hours ago

I get "fuck" and "duck". I don't get "the occupied territories", "the Hamas movement", and "Trayvon Martin".

[–] sigmar 15 hours ago

>It's simply not autocompleted.

Inaccurate. According to swipeblocked.com it is blocked with both swiping and autocomplete.

[–] akersten 15 hours ago

We're not censoring the book. It's simply not on the shelves. You can ask for it by name if you like. You have to spell it out exactly though, or else the librarian will deny any knowledge of it.