ɔᴚAug 7, 2024

So I’ve been using Microsoft Stream at work to auto-caption videos. Part of my job is quality assurance so I double-check the captions for errors.

One recent annoyance is that the captioning software censors some words, replacing them with asterisks. One word in particular that has been a thorn in my side is the word “nipple”. I have had to work on several BREASTFEEDING videos. Needless to say, I’ve been retyping in the word “nipple” a lot.

Come to today, I’m working on a video about transgender and non-binary folks. The speaker said, “There is no such thing as straight sex and gay sex.” Lo and behold Microsoft in their infinite wisdom decided to censor the words “gay sex”. “Straight sex” is uncensored.

I’m fucking livid, but I have no real way to contact Microsoft on this. But, mark it down and spread the word, Microsoft are fucking homophobic prudes.

Show thread🌸 lily 🏳️‍⚧️   θΔ ⋐ & ∞
@RC that's also pretty ableist because if you hear it you need to see it too otherwise it's not completely identical
Aug 7, 2024 at 4:58pmWeb
Show threadAmin Hollon 🏳Aug 7, 2024

@tauon @RC

Right, that's what I was gonna say; I'm flabberghasted whenever the idea of censoring captions even comes up as remotely a good one.

Show threadKrafterAug 7, 2024

@amin @tauon @RC

exactly— if you're not censoring the audio, why would you censor the captions? aren't they supposed to be exactly what the audio says???

Show threadBryce DixonAug 8, 2024

@tauon @RC This has been my position on this absolute policy failure. YouTube does it, too!

It's got this infantilizing tone of "oh, don't you worry yourself about what nasty things they *actually*, you wouldn't want to read those bad words, anyway."