Yesterday, I sorted out a note of Orwell's essay and planned to post it on Lofter. As a result, it was published a little later, and the system showed that it contained sensitive words and could not be sent. Since Orwell's article is full of sensitive points, I can't know which sensitive word is blocking the sending, and I am too lazy to try it over and over again, so I simply don't send it.

Then I opened the brief book and prepared to send it. As a result, I saw that 4 of the original 6 articles were locked, and the subject matter of the lock was very wide, ranging from niche culture to cyber violence to political topics. Where did the mine strike (judging from the time it was locked, it should have been automatically locked by the system).

This reminds me of chatting with a former colleague a few months ago. She said that it has become more and more difficult to be a self-media in the past two years, because the sensitive words are constantly increasing, and many of them look strange. The strangest sensitive words she has encountered include "mother of the motherland" (including "mother of the country"), and "intern teacher" (including "teacher Xi"). Because the WeChat public account system only prompts sensitive words, but does not tell which ones are sensitive words, so they had to try again and again, and finally they were exhausted and finally found these two seemingly ordinary words.

Now, sensitive words have changed from "not letting people search or write about sensitive political events" to "enhanced taboo system". Originally, the ancient taboo has made me feel funny enough, why can't the emperor's name be mentioned? The modern version of taboo has reached a disgusting level.

Let me summarize the negative effects of the current sensitive word mechanism:

1. The article cannot be published

This is the most simple and intuitive. In some systems, if it contains sensitive words, it cannot be sent out from the beginning; in some systems, it is detected quickly after it is sent out, and then the article is deleted.

I don't know how many articles are deleted and blocked from being published on the Chinese Internet. If they could be published, maybe the current network environment wouldn't look so sick and crazy. This gave me a little consolation: in addition to lunatics, there are many normal people who can't speak.

2. The content of the article is obscure and difficult to understand

In order to avoid triggering sensitive words, many authors will write "you know", "everyone knows", "that's the thing", "zz", "that year" and other secret words in the content. These words confuse people who don't know the situation, or, what the author wants to refer to and what the reader thinks are two different things.

This twisted and unpleasant way of saying it looks irritating, but it's not the worst. Worst of all, because it's hard to make the whole thing clear and make your own point in code, many authors don't write after they mention "you get it". The discussion gets stuck at the touch of a button, so no ideas can be presented, no arguments can be explored. Because vocabulary is deprived, people lose the ability to discuss issues in a serious and in-depth manner.

3. The Internet atmosphere is more joking and aggravating cynicism

Because serious and in-depth discussion of issues is impossible, or almost impossible, on the intranet in China, many people choose to use code words and abbreviations to write jokes after some bad social events. This not only expresses the inner resentment, but also is very safe, and everyone can understand.

However, a large number of self-deprecating and cynical black jokes make people take things less seriously, as if everything is a black joke, and people are even less likely to seek solutions and explore the possibility of solutions. (Of course, some people will say: "But we can't solve these things?" However, many things have not even been discussed, and they have given up early.)

Regarding the sense of playfulness brought about by code words, it can also be seen from a large number of unknown abbreviations. There are a lot of XSLW (die me laughing), SFXY (blood and blood), WYSL (I'm dying), etc. on social media, and these words did not need to be written in abbreviated form at all, because they are just everyday words. But as the lexicon of code words continues to grow, writing abbreviations seems to have become a fashion. As a result, the entire speech environment was inexplicably immersed in this ignorant and funny atmosphere.

4. Self-censorship is extremely serious

In order to avoid triggering sensitive words, many people avoid a lot of content at the stage of writing articles and do not write them in the first place.

This happens to a large number of content creators, but I also noticed one thing: even if the article is only read by myself and not published publicly, sensitive words deeply affect me.

I've been writing an online diary since 2016 on a personal podcast, a place that only I can see. But I don't know why, it's clear that only I can read it, but when I type on the keyboard, there is an indescribable, huge fear gushing out from an unknown black hole. Since the words (full form, not code words) have not been spoken or seen online for so long, they seem to have become some kind of magical forbidden language, and once they are written, disaster is coming.

Rationally, I know that these fears are abnormal, but it's like being under a mute spell, I miss them, write them down, I can't do it. This is probably the fear caused by the long-term use of the sensitive word mechanism. Those who were originally ordinary people (well, I mean Xi Jinping and others), because they were set as "unspeakable", their image became more terrifying and mysterious, and people were less afraid to write.

(It suddenly dawned on me that it was like having two names for Tom Riddle in Harry Potter: "You know who" and "Voldemort". Most people call him You-know-who, but Harry insisted on calling him "Voldemort", presumably to lessen the horrific image of Voldemort in his mind. He was later called "Tom Riddle", and Harry disenchanted him.)

That's almost it, write it here first.