Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television in the USA
Seven dirty words.
“The seven dirty words are seven English-language curse words that American comedian George Carlin first listed in his 1972 “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” monologue. The words, in the order Carlin listed them, are: shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits.”
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_dirty_words
YouTube
Google doesn’t appear to be the forbidding type, however, inappropriate, adult, shocking, harmful, and recreational words (if it’s drugs), are not encouraged.
“YouTube has received criticism from LGBTQ creators who say the platform demonetizes their videos. There was even a lawsuit filed by several creators in August. YouTube channel Nerd City posted a video in collaboration with Sealow, the CEO of Ocelot AI, and Andrew from the channel Analyzed, that showed the content management system in action. They put together a list of 15,000 words and manually uploaded one-to-two second videos to determine which terms got flagged for demonetization. Videos with “lesbian” and “gay” were deemed by the bots as non-advertiser friendly, while “straight” and “heterosexual” were fine. Sealow explained this is not a matter of LGBTQ YouTubers posting videos about subjects that are unsuitable for some viewers, like sex or tragedy, which all creators get demonetized for. “This is LGBTQ terminology like gay and lesbian being the sole reason for a video being demonetized, despite being perfectly acceptable context,” he said. “We’re proud of the incredible LGBTQ voices on our platform and take concerns like these very seriously,” a YouTube spokesperson told Insider.”
Source: https://www.insider.com/youtubers-identify-title-words-that-get-videos-demonetized-experiment-2019-10
Atkins High School
“Banned Word List: I, You, We, Nice, Very, A Lot, Such As, Stuff, Thing, Things, Something, Really, Plus, Even, Just, Me, Like, Got, Get, My, Kid, Quote, Quotation, So, Why, It, All Contractions are BANNED in Formal Writing. In the future—beginning with the next writing assignment—any banned word, or contraction, that appears in a work submitted to me will count as -5 (minus five) points off the total grade.”
Source: https://www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/Page/45303
CERN writing guidelines
“Guidelines for writers and editors contributing to CERN websites
forbidden words
The following is a list of the web editor’s pet peeves. It is intended to make writers think more about simple use of English, and for editors to cut jargon where possible.
Don’t use the following words or constructions, except in direct quotes.
Access (as a verb), And/or (Logic gates do not belong in prose), Anomalous – results are not anomalous, they are “unexpected,” Anthropogenic, Breakthrough, Colloquium – say “seminar,” Component – part, Elucidate – say “find out,” et al. – say “and colleague” or “and their team, “Facilitate – “help,” Further research is needed (or anything like that), Holy Grail – an over–used metaphor, However – why use however when you can just say “but”?, Impact (as a verb), Informed (people can be informed. As for “The discussion was informed…”?), Initiate – use start, In order to – almost always redundant. Just say “to,” Interdisciplinary, Interested in (as in, “Dr. Frankenstein is interested in tissue regeneration.” – it makes it sound boring), It has been shown… By who?, Literally (even if it’s used accurately, the word is generally useless), Material properties, Mechanism, Methodology, Mitigation, Modulate, Multiple (as in many? Then just use many), Novel (the adjective is banned. Say “new”. The noun, as in War and Peace, is fine.), Optimum, Orthogonal, Paradigm shift, Parameter (also, parameterize), Scientists have learned in recent years that… (A dodge to escape explaining what actually happened), Seminal, Sustainability, System (as in, “He chose atoms as a system to study”), Synergy (corporate jargon that we can all do without), This (if there is no antecedent in sight), Transmissibility, Trivial (in the way scientists like to use it: “This problem is trivial.” Non–trivial is even worse.), Utilize – say “use”, Via – use “through” or “by”, Very – This word is almost always redundant. It’s not “very big”, it’s huge, vast, or enormous. “Very small”? – No. Tiny, minute, etc. The exceptions are when “very” is used to mean “actual; precise” as in those were his very words, or to mean “without addition; mere” as in the very thought made her shudder. Those uses are fine, We – as in “We now accurately know the diameter of the proton.” We includes your readers, most of whom don’t know until you tell them. Even worse are constructions such as “We’ve all laughed at Charlie-Chaplin films”. No we haven’t!”
Source: https://writing-guidelines.web.cern.ch/entries/forbidden-words.html
HSS agencies get lists of banned words
“The Trump administration is prohibiting HHS agencies from using certain words and phrases in official documents being prepared for the 2018 budget. (Monica Akhtar, Juliet Eilperin, Lena Sun/The Washington Post) By Lena H. Sun and Juliet Eilperin, December 15, 2017
The Trump administration is prohibiting officials at the nation’s top public health agency from using a list of seven words or phrases — including “fetus” and “transgender” — in official documents being prepared for next year’s budget.
Policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were told of the list of forbidden words at a meeting Thursday with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget, according to an analyst who took part in the 90-minute briefing. The forbidden words are “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”
In some instances, the analysts were given alternative phrases. Instead of “science-based” or ”evidence-based,” the suggested phrase is “CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes,” the person said. In other cases, no replacement words were immediately offered.
The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, “will continue to use the best scientific evidence available to improve the health of all Americans,” HHS spokesman Matt Lloyd told The Washington Post. “HHS also strongly encourages the use of outcome and evidence data in program evaluations and budget decisions.”
The question of how to address such issues as sexual orientation, gender identity and abortion rights — all of which received significant visibility under the Obama administration — has surfaced repeatedly in federal agencies since President Trump took office. Several key departments — including HHS, as well as Justice, Education, and Housing and Urban Development — have changed some federal policies and how they collect government information about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.
In March, for example, HHS dropped questions about sexual orientation and gender identity in two surveys of elderly people.
Trump’s nominee Alex Azar lays out his focus for HHS
President Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, testified before the Senate Health Committee on Nov. 29. (Reuters)
HHS has also removed information about LGBT Americans from its website. The department’s Administration for Children and Families, for example, archived a page that outlined federal services that are available for LGBT people and their families, including how they can adopt and receive help if they are the victims of sex trafficking.
At the CDC, the meeting about the banned words was led by Alison Kelly, a career civil servant who is a senior leader in the agency’s Office of Financial Resources, according to the CDC analyst, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly. Kelly did not say why the words are being banned, according to the analyst, and told the group that she was merely relaying the information.
Other CDC officials confirmed the existence of a list of forbidden words. It’s likely that other parts of HHS are operating under the same guidelines regarding the use of these words, the analyst said.
At the CDC, several offices have responsibility for work that uses some of these words. The National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention is working on ways to prevent HIV among transgender people and reduce health disparities. The CDC’s work on birth defects caused by the Zika virus includes research on the developing fetus.
The ban is related to the budget and supporting materials that are to be given to the CDC’s partners and to Congress, the analyst said. The president’s budget for 2019 is expected to be released in early February. The budget blueprint is generally shaped to reflect an administration’s priorities.
Federal agencies are sending in their budget proposals to the Office of Management and Budget, which has authority about what is included.
Neither an OMB spokesman nor a CDC spokeswoman responded to requests for comment Friday.
[This is how the Trump administration has shifted course on civil rights]
The longtime CDC analyst, whose job includes writing descriptions of the CDC’s work for the administration’s annual spending blueprint, could not recall a previous time when words were banned from budget documents because they were considered controversial.
The reaction of people in the meeting was “incredulous,” the analyst said. “It was very much, ‘Are you serious? Are you kidding?’ ”
“In my experience, we’ve never had any pushback from an ideological standpoint,” the analyst said.
News of the ban on certain words hasn’t yet spread to the broader group of scientists at the CDC, but it’s likely to provoke a backlash, the analyst said. “Our subject matter experts will not lay down quietly — this hasn’t trickled down to them yet.”
The CDC has a budget of about $7 billion and more than 12,000 employees working across the nation and around the globe on everything from food and water safety, to heart disease and cancer, to infectious disease outbreak prevention. Much of the CDC’s work has strong bipartisan support.
Kelly told the analysts that “certain words” in the CDC’s budget drafts were being sent back to the agency for correction. Three words that had been flagged in these drafts were “vulnerable,” “entitlement” and “diversity.” Kelly told the group the ban on the other words had been conveyed verbally.”
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/cdc-gets-list-of-forbidden-words-fetus-transgender-diversity/2017/12/15/