Right now there’s a lot of hate in the world with social networks and other online platforms helping to spread that hate. Perhaps what we need then is a way to clean up our online behavior and turn cyberspace into a safe space. But how can we do that?! Stopping the spread of fake news on Facebook would be a good start. We could have AI driven algorithms that filter out abusive content or human moderators that do the same. But we also may be able to achieve the same effect without having to overhaul our systems. In fact, a simple change to a new font could go a long way.
As Creative Bloq puts it:
“Not that we’d ever swear, [but] we can’t deny that there’s been plenty to curse about in 2020 (with the year seeming, well, cursed). But if you have a penchant for the profane, a clever new font is here to keep you in check.
The Polite Type, developed by Finnish tech company TietoEVRY, can automatically blur swearing, while also correcting offensive phrases to milder re-wordings…
But The Polite Type is more than just a clever gimmick designed to stop you swearing. The initiative has been created to highlight cyberbullying among young people. ‘The words we choose shape our reality,’ The Polite Type’s website reads. ‘This is an open-source font that rewrites hurtful words, replacing them with more inclusive ones. We want to create room for the important discussion on how we can make the online world a safer, more inclusive place for everyone.’
Indeed, ‘you are ugly’ becomes ‘you are not traditionally beautiful’ while expletives such as ****, **** and our favourite, ******, are blurred completely. TietoEVRY claims that, while blurring is often used to hide something offensive, this is the first time it has been incorporated as a symbol in a font.”
Of course we could just save ourselves the trouble and not say abusive things in the first place. But apparently not all of us are capable of doing that. So we may have to do the next best thing: design solutions that achieve the results we desire as a society. Perhaps one such solution is The Polite Type.
Is The Polite Type the Greatest Idea Ever?
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