Jamie F
A new anti-censorship ‘d1ck-tionary’ tool aimed at helping those who need to discuss sex on social media, such as sexfluencers and sex toy brands, avoid shadowbanning has been launched.
Shadowbanning is the act of social media platforms making the posts of a user less visible, without informing the user that this is happening. This can happen to users who post sex-related words, with many mainstream social media platforms aiming to clamp down on sexual content.
The new tool, S3xy Shortcuts, programs your linked Apple devices to automatically auto-correct sex-related words in its database to alternative ‘cheat’ words when you type them, such as changing the word “anal” to “4nal”. This should result in the new ‘shortcut’ word having a lower chance of being detected as an ‘offensive’ sex word by social media algorithms, and as such should lower the chance of shadowbanning.
The d1ck-tionary tool has been launched by the Dutch sex toy retailer Peech.dk. Once activated, it changes the word “clitoris” to “cl1toris” when you type it, “orgasm” to “org4sm”, and “buttplug” to “bu7tplug”.
To use S3xy Shortcuts, download the file from the blog section of Peech’s website to an Apple Mac. Then open System Preferences on your Mac, click on ‘Keyboard’ then go to ‘Text’, and drag and drop the S3xy Shortcuts file into it. This integrates the word-switching system onto all your linked iOS devices.
The tool could be useful for those promoting sextech products on social media, plus sex workers and sexfluencers. Of course, if it becomes widely used, social media algorithms may eventually become wise to their list of alternative ‘d1ck-tionary’ words for sex words, and begin to recognize them as such.
Various sextech companies have complained about their online output being treated like its vice content by big tech, with some social media platforms and retail sites placing strict limitations on promoting sex-related products and discussions. Platforms such as Instagram and Facebook ban content promoting sex work.
TikTok is one of the most stringent social media platforms when it comes to limiting sex words, with the video platform largely not allowing use of words such as “orgasm” and “clitoris”. Users discussing sextech often have to use euphemistic language or abbreviations of sex words to get their messages across, or risk shadowbanning or outright bans.
Being a video platform rather than reliant on text, S3xy Shortcuts can’t help with that TikTok problem quite yet, though. However, an Android version is on the way.
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