6 Common Tricks Used to Avoid Profanity Filters | Chekkee (2024)

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September 18, 2020

First on our list is called word separators. This is a complex type of trick that can be used toignore profanity filters. It involves the use of — separators (hence its name) such as spaces, periods, commas, and other non-alphabetic characters between each letter or character of a whole word without compromising its readability.Check out these examples:

• S…..M…..I…..L…..E
• S*M*I*L*E
• S m i l e
• S…m*i….L,e

These are good examples of words processed with separators. As you can see, there may be some unnecessary elements incorporated within each letter but it did not lose its readability. But, while non-alphabetical characters are quite effective ingetting around profanity filters, letters can also be used as separators in some instances, making it even difficult for the profanity filter to recognize these violations.Take a look at these examples:

• SaaaaMaaaaIaaaaLaaaaE
• SheMosiesInLateEverytime

Next, check these examples:

• His ex.
• Go bash it!

At first glance, it will take you a while to see the profanity in each phrase. But if you look more closely at the last 4 or 3 letters and read the characters on their own, you’ll be able to see the profanity present in the phrase.This is due to the fact that profanity filters are sometimes not intelligent enough to distinguish which word should be filtered and which should not. In the end, it identifies some sentences as false positive statements. The best course of action to prevent your profanity filter from missing such tactful letter arrangement is to upgrade your software to its latest patch and be acquainted with these types of non-harmful texts. In response, you come up with plans on how you will integrate your filter standards to address these kinds of texts.

Have you ever heard of the “Sc*nthorpe Problem”?It is based on a small town in England called Sc*nthorpe, which unintentionally ran afoul of Facebook’s automated moderating filter. The latter deemed the English town’s name as a term or text depicting profane words. Due to this, locals from this town had a hard timeadvertisingtheir services on Facebook. Since then, the Sc*nthorpe Problem became a blanket term for profanity embedded in all proper names and dictionary words.The following are good examples of names categorized under Sc*nthorpe Problems:

• Butts
• Cummings
• Medick
• Dickinson
• Suconco*ck

It left a huge impact especially for brands where these terms are being incorporated. A cascade of unintentional blocking of websites, emails, forum posts, or search results by an automated profanity filter ensued simply because these texts, albeit unintentionally offensive, contain letters that when arranged in a certain manner are classified as profane, obscene, or outright vulgar.Users, on the other hand, take this as an advantage to cloak their profane texts by embedding them into other words.Here’s a concrete sample:

• qwertySMILEuio123

Or, they can go for a more complex tactic by combining phonetic replacements, separators, or leet speaks:

• abcd$M1LEabcd
• abcdSMYLEabcd
• abcdSSSMMMIIIILLLLEEEEabcd
• abcdSM||_Eabcd
• abcdS*M*I*L*Eabcd

With the presence of this technique, it pays to have your automatedprofanity filterbe smart enough to not only distinguish custom-embedded words but also possess the ability to identify when these embedded words are not meant to be harmful. Smarter scrutiny of these terms prevents the same fate of the town of Sc*nthorpe from recurring.

This is the process of simply replacing characters with other alphabetic characters. In some instances, characters within a word can be strategically removed without losing the phonetic structure of the word.Here are some examples:

• SMYLE/SMYAL/SMYLLE
• THIC/THICC/THICCK
• ATTAK/ATACK/ATTACC

As you can see in example number 1, the letter “I” is replaced with “Y” as this can be a practical alternative without losing its phonetic structure. As for examples 2 and 3, implementing the removal and addition of characters altogether is used to render the terms to look different without losing its phonetic structure.Phonetic letter replacement is one of the most commonly used tactics toget around profanity filters, as most profanity filters are not tailored to recognize and understand phonetics.

The name itself explains how repeat characters tactic works. It mostly involves the over repetition of characters in a word to hide their message.Check out these examples:

• sssssmmmmmmiiiiiiilllllllleeeeee
• hhhhhhhhheeeeeeeelllllllooooooooo!

Although it looks quite simple, this tactic more often than not bypasses profanity filters. To protect your online community or chat room from being flooded by these types of words, it is essential to set up your profanity filter to detect multiple occurrences of the same character. Failure to do this will allow users to seamlesslysidestep profanity filters.

By definition, a Grawlix is a string of typographical symbols used as a substitute to cover profane, offensive, or obscene words. This is usually be seen in comics strips. It is a group of non-alphabet characters put together that clearly identifies a profane word.Here are some examples of Grawlix:

• &@$#%! What have you done?!
• You’re such a @&*^[emailprotected]!(&(!
• Whatever, ^@%!$

At first glance, Grawlix might not look offensive compared to the other tactics cited above, but this is a very effective strategy for members to express profane emotions without triggering your profanity filter.

Last and definitely not the least in our list is called Leet or “L33T” speak. It is another trick that involves replacing certain letters or characters with other characters that usually resemble or are closely similar to the original character. This is a very effective way to hide fromcontentfilteringas most traditional profanity filters are not well-integrated to recognize non-alphabetic characters.Here are some examples of Leet Speak:

• [emailprotected]|_|_¥ in place of Sally
• |)0N’T $M1|_E in place of DON’T SMILE

To make this easier to comprehend, here is a chart of commonly used characters in the Leet Alphabet: