Selective Transparency Isn’t Safety

Sanitized Speech Doesn’t Protect Us. It Profits From Us.

We need to talk about how language is getting diluted, censored, and corporatized to death.

If you spend even five minutes online, you’ve heard it.

“Unalive” instead of suicide.

“Pew pew” instead of shooting.

“PDF file” instead of pedophile.

What started as a workaround for platforms that punish creators for “sensitive content” has now become the default. Not just on TikTok, but in actual, everyday language. That’s not just cringey. It’s terrifying.

Because now I can say “PDF file” in a sentence and you don’t think I’m talking about a document.

This isn’t parody anymore. It’s desensitization. It’s normalization. It’s control.

Creators don’t choose this language because they’re afraid of words. They choose it because they’re afraid of losing their income. They are trying to survive under a system that punishes plain speech and rewards euphemism. It’s not artistic. It’s survival.

So we contort ourselves into weird, algorithm-safe code while talking about some of the most horrifying parts of human existence. All so the platform can keep running ads for meal kits and skincare.

And then that censorship starts to bleed off the screen. Suddenly, we’re not just changing our language. We’re changing how we feel about the things we used to name.

Information Without Conversation Is Just Control

Let’s go back to that police post. The problem wasn’t just that they turned off the comments. The problem is that this isn’t unusual.

Institutions use social media like a loudspeaker. They get to broadcast whatever they want. They also get to choose whether the public is allowed to respond.

You’ve seen it before.

Comment sections closed on school board meetings.

News pages deleting posts that challenge the narrative.

Survivors banned for using accurate language about what they’ve lived through.

These aren’t isolated incidents. They are strategic choices. And they all echo the same message.

You are allowed to absorb. But not to react.

You are allowed to be informed. But not involved.

Who Gets to Claim They’re Protecting Us?

The question isn’t who the “community” is. The question is who gets to claim they’re protecting it.

Because when police departments, social media platforms, and corporations say they’re protecting us, what they often mean is they’re protecting themselves. Their image. Their liability. Their fragile control over a messy, complicated world.

And they are using language as the leash.

If I can’t say rape, but I can say dismemberment, what exactly are we prioritizing?

If I can’t call a predator a predator, who am I really protecting?

If I’m not allowed to ask a question about safety in my own neighborhood, what kind of safety is that?

We are being asked to trust systems that keep us quiet. Then we are told the silence is for our own good.

Language Has Always Been a Weapon. So Let’s Use It.

This is what keeps me up at night. It’s not just that people are saying “unalive” or “pew pew” on social media. It’s that we are becoming complicit in a culture that teaches us to speak in euphemism and consume violence like content.

Words are how we name things. Naming things is how we make them real.

If you’ve ever survived something horrific, you know that the first step in healing is being able to say it out loud. To use the right word. Not a softened version. Not a joke. The real word.

When we lose access to real language, we do not just lose accuracy.  We lose power.

When they take away the comments, we do not just lose our voice.  We lose each other.

Final Thought

I am not asking for shock value. I am asking for the right to say what is true.

I am asking for real words. Real information. Real transparency.

And the chance to talk about it without being shut down for the sake of someone else’s comfort.

Because nothing about this is comfortable.

And if we can’t say it, we can’t stop it.