Linguistic Creativity in the Age of Algorithmic Censorship: The Emergence of Algospeak

This thesis investigates the phenomenon of Algospeak, a set of linguistic strategies adopted by content creators on social media platforms as a way to circumvent algorithmic censorship. The study focuses on the concept of censorship and how it can lead entire communities to develop new linguistic practices to express sensitive and prohibited topics. It then explores censorship on social media platforms and how algorithms are employed to detect and filter content deemed inappropriate according to platform policies. Finally, it examines the main strategies adopted by Algospeak users, presenting a corpus compiled by the author consisting of lexical items associated with Algospeak.