Political Protests Have Their Own New Code

As President Trump continues to try to wrest control of Washington, DC, away from local leaders and police, protests are unsurprisingly popping up—but you may not realize that at first if you don't speak the updated language revolving around them. Axios reports that "music festival" is the new coded term used on social media to indicate political demonstrations, an attempt to circumvent any online algorithms that would censor content around these protests or even possibly bring unwanted attention to individual protesters.

The outlet cites multiple examples of this wording shift. "Don't you love music?" one content creator posted on TikTok to advertise a DC demonstration, along with the hashtags #music, #dance, and, yes, #musicfestival. Another poster promoting a Friday evening protest in front of the White House and a Saturday demonstration in Dupont Circle used "MUSIC FESTIVALS" in his post caption, in all caps.

Both Axios and Her Campus note that this language choice is an example of "algospeak," which ditches words or terms that could flag the social media platform you're on and replaces them with more "algorithm-friendly alternatives." Axios cites examples like using the word "unalive" instead of "kill," or "seggs" in place of the word "sex." Her Campus also notes that the online messages using this type of code are often vague in other details, including addresses and times to gather, "to help protect organizers and spread the word discreetly, without giving away too much information to people who might try to shut these protests down."