# To what extent can social media companies censor their platforms? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 2, 2025, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-what-extent-can-social-media-companies-censor-their-platforms/1020403 "2025-07-02T15:34:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-what-extent-can-social-media-companies-censor-their-platforms/1020403/41 "2025-07-04T17:51:47Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Right now current AI censors cannot connect “gorillas wearing large gold necklaces” with “white supremacist assholes”. But there’s no reason in principle they couldn’t start making that connection tomorrow. But what will they use to associate gorillas _not_ wearing bling to racism? Would it be gorillas or chimps in human settings? And how do they tell an episode of _Bewitched_ where Darrin is turned into a chimp, or an old Clint Eastwood movie, or _Magilla Gorilla_, (or _Planet of the Apes_) from racism? One of my favourite examples of a double entendre that may whoosh some people, is discussing getting old. “They say the mind is the second thing to go…” People with a dirty mind chuckle. The naive say “What’s the first?” and the harmless SFW funny answer is “I don’t remember”. The question is whether to AI can be trained to the level of making that association without creating phantom results out of nothing. There’s a skit on the _Frantics_ album _Boot to the Head_: (I can’t embed the link, but it’s on Youtube as _The Frantics - Boot to the Head - 14. Make Up Dirty Words_ ) “You’re reading the newspaper. I guess you’'re enjoying all the dirty words…” “There are no dirty words in the Times.” “Look at that headline ‘Rain predicted for some areas’! That’s a dirty word.” “No it’s not!” “It is if you say it right… _Areas_. I touched my _areas_. It rained, and now I have soggy _areas_…” When AI can do stand-up comedy, the human race is finished. PS.The whole album is hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-what-extent-can-social-media-companies-censor-their-platforms/1020403/42 "2025-07-04T17:54:43Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > When AI can do stand-up comedy, the human race is finished. Genius! I suppose we can now retire the tired old Turing Test and replace it with the “md-2000 Test”. Seriously, not snarkily. You’ve really encapsulated the idea perfectly in that one short sentence. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-what-extent-can-social-media-companies-censor-their-platforms/1020403/43 "2025-07-07T05:47:26Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I suppose we can now retire the tired old Turing Test and replace it with the “md-2000 Test”. OTOH, I observed decades ago that there are some humans who wouldn’t pass the Turing test either. Just as there are plenty of humans that can’t do stand-up comedy, let alone do it well. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-what-extent-can-social-media-companies-censor-their-platforms/1020403/44 "2025-07-07T06:51:03Z")
It’s not an [entirely new problem](https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/08/security_is_a_t.html): > Back in the 1980s, Yosemite National Park was having a serious problem with bears: They would wander into campgrounds and break into the garbage bins. This put both bears and people at risk. So the Park Service started installing armored garbage cans that were tricky to open—you had to swing a latch, align two bits of handle, that sort of thing. But it turns out it’s actually quite tricky to get the design of these cans just right. Make it _too_ complex and people can’t get them open to put away their garbage in the first place. Said one park ranger, “There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists.” ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-what-extent-can-social-media-companies-censor-their-platforms/1020403/45 "2025-07-07T07:44:43Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Back in the 1980s, Yosemite National Park was having a serious problem with bears: They would wander into campgrounds and break into the garbage bins. This put both bears and people at risk. So the Park Service started installing armored garbage cans that were tricky to open—you had to swing a latch, align two bits of handle, that sort of thing. But it turns out it’s actually quite tricky to get the design of these cans just right. Make it _too_ complex and people can’t get them open to put away their garbage in the first place. Said one park ranger, “There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists.” To be fair to the humans, the bears get endless chances to figure it out while many of the tourists will be encountering these contraptions for the first time. But the garbage only needs to go in; neither tourists nor bears need to be able to get it out again. Why didn’t they just design the bins to have a one way chute? Either make it so long no bear can reach the trash, or the kind where you pull out a rotating drawer, put in the rubbish, and when you close it, it falls into the receptacle. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-what-extent-can-social-media-companies-censor-their-platforms/1020403/46 "2025-07-07T08:07:06Z")
It’s been a while since I’ve been to Yosemite, but I’ve seen a few that were designed like old-school mailboxes, basically the second version you described. Most seem to be a fairly regular box with a latched lid, where the handle is recessed behind a slot that’s too narrow for bear fingers. And also too dark to make sure it isn’t full of centipedes. The story is probably apocryphal anyway. Yosemite did have bear issues but I doubt it was an actual challenge; they just had to make an effort. Well, the story is still funny. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-what-extent-can-social-media-companies-censor-their-platforms/1020403/47 "2025-07-07T10:07:20Z")
I’ll also point out that many people dumping trash would want to operate the latch/handle gizmo with just one hand, holding their load in the other. While being all squicked out at holding an overflowing bag of trash. And squicked out about touching part of a trash can another human might have touched without disinfecting it first. In addition to being dumber than the av-er-age bear, the av-er-age human is far, far, more uselessly fussy. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-what-extent-can-social-media-companies-censor-their-platforms/1020403/48 "2025-07-07T13:06:17Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Said one park ranger, “There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists.” From an old play I saw… Her: “I’m not as dumb as you think I am!” Him: “No… you couldn’t be.” Apparently the same problem with garbage bins applies to racoons and those new-ish rolling bins. Some have figured out how to open them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-what-extent-can-social-media-companies-censor-their-platforms/1020403.md?page=2)