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Profanity can be removed with a regular expression. What counts as "hate speech" is necessarily impossible for even humans to agree on, let alone algorithms. It
by jdminhbg 5y ago
Profanity can be removed with a regular expression. What counts as "hate speech" is necessarily impossible for even humans to agree on, let alone algorithms. It's becoming increasingly clear to me that the general public, and maybe especially the media class, has no idea that this is the case.
- happytoexplain 5y agoIt's unrealistic to define "subjective" as "impossible". The ability to automate something deterministically can't be a universal bar for action. Yes, defining hate speech is a thorny undertaking, but moderating based on subjectivity is already the norm, by necessity.
- ska 5y ago> Profanity can be removed with a regular expression. Not easily. cf "Scunthorpe Problem" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem > What counts as "hate speech" is necessarily impossible Most problems like this can be broken into "the easy bit" and "the rest". Focusing on the thorny problems in "the rest" is a mistake if you want to do something about the easy bit (and a tactic, if you want to avoid it). There are a few reasonable ways to approach this, free-speach maximimalist only one of them. I'm sure there are unreasonable ways too.
- nradov 5y agoHave you visited Scunthorpe England or Fucking Austria lately?
- tux3 5y agoPlease don't do this! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem
- jdminhbg 5y agoYes, yes, I realize that you can't just s/bad word/*/g across your database of comments. Nevertheless, it's a much easier job than teaching an AI which references to monkeys are from cuddly wildlife accounts, and which are abuse sent to black athletes.
- treeman79 5y agoWas driving around and saw a new business with one of those expensive light up signs being installed. “Thai Porn” Umm okay that’s absurdly bold. A week later a new sign was being installed, “Thai Food” So I guess a translation error, and no one thought to say something until after it was installed. Expensive mistake.
- ThrowawayR2 5y agoThinking that regular expressions can provide a$$istance with removing profanity is a clbuttic mistake. (The point being that determined posters can work around regexes trivially and that regexes have a high occurrence of false positives.)
- wolverine876 5y agoJust because it won't work perfectly doesn't mean it's not effective. No medicine works perfectly; should we abandon all medication?