What I find fascinating in hashtag’s
is the way they use, misuse, change, re-code and perform language.
I find the aspect of hashtag as coded language interesting,
thinking about the fact that its visibility can be both empowering and endangered
by censorship, random noise, or targeted misuse. Using hashtag as encoded language
or hiding can be motivated by different means. Elizabeth Losh brings in the
example of the Chinese version of the #MeToo as its phonetic translation into Rice
bunny (米兔), pronounced as “mi tu” accompanied by emojis of rice bowls
and bunny heads.
This practice of using homophones and images is used as a tactical
response to online censorship in China in other situations too.
One example is: River crab (Chinese: 河蟹; pinyin:
héxiè) is a slang term created in reference to the Internet censorship, or
other kinds of censorship in China. Another example is: The Grass Mud Horse or
Cǎonímǎ (草泥马), a Chinese Internet meme widely used as
a euphemism for the cursing phrase cào nǐ mā (肏你妈). It is a word
play on the Mandarin words cào nǐ mā (肏你妈), literally,
"f* y* m*", and is one of the 10 mythical creatures created in a hoax
article on Baidu Baike in early 2009 whose names form obscene puns. It has
become an Internet chat forum cult phenomenon in China and has garnered
worldwide press attention, with videos, cartoons and merchandise of the animal
(which is said to resemble the alpaca), having appeared.
Sources:
On the other side of the spectrum, groups from the extreme
right use code words in order to bypass censorship that meant to filter out
racism. Slang words are used as racial slurs in order to stay invisible for
filters and yet visible for the like-minded. “Skype”, “Skittle” and “Yahoo” are
such words. Far rights groups traditionally substitute words of a particular
group of people with specific slang that is dehumanizing the target group.
Interestingly, the cited code words are used in the common language with neutral
meaning or even as widespread technological words. In this sense, they are not
only coded but also mimicking a category of hashtag that is close to noise. Nevertheless,
in their original meaning or their first use, these words are attached to a
specific racist meaning. “Skittle” comes from a Donald Trump Jr.’s tweet with
an image comparing Syrian refugees to Skittles; “yahoo’s” original meaning is a rude, noisy, or violent person; whereas
Skype and Google are randomly assigned.
“According to Buzzfeed News, the code began on 4chan under
the name “Operation Google” in an effort to beat the Google Jigsaw program,
which detects hate speech. The plan was devised, in part, to get Google to
scrub out mentions of its own name.”
Sources:
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