Shashi Tharoor's 'word of the day' is algospeak, Twitter comes up with examples

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has posted the latest 'word of the day' on his Twitter account, and this one concerns people who are in the digital content business.

The word is "algospeak" and Tharoor defines it thus: word used on social media posts to avoid using another that algorithms may identify as unsuitable or inappropriate, in order to bypass downranking by content moderation filters on social media platforms. Eg. using “unalive” rather than “dead.”

Many on Twitter found the example he gave as funny, and came up with their own examples of algospeak. "When I was in school, during attendance instead of saying “Present Ma’am”, I used to say “Not Absent Ma’am” as a joke," volunteered one.


Others saw the word as symptomatic of the changing times.

Others wondered if there was an aside somewhere against the controversy over the list of of words deemed as unparliamentary by the chair.

Tharoor's 'word of the day', where he introduces words not used much in daily coversation, is a hit among his followers on Twitter. Previous words form the 'Tharoorosaurus' include anocracy (for form of government that mixes democracy with autocratic features), quockerwodger ( a type of wooden puppet) and epicaricracy ( rejoicing at the misfortunes of others).