(Newswire.net— July 4, 2020) — The social network Twitter bans the words “master”, “slave” and “blacklist” for the sake of a more inclusive language. These terms are often used in programming code that originated decades ago, BBC reports.
The American bank Morgan announced a similar move, while more and more companies are beginning to tackle racism and race related microaggressions after police killed Afro-American George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Replacing these terms could cost millions and take months, experts estimate.
The word “master” in programming terminology refers to the main version of the code that controls “slaves”, or replicas. A “blacklist” is used to describe items that are automatically rejected, usually banned sites.
Twitter’s engineering department announced on Thursday a series of words the company wants to stop using for the sake of incorporating a “more inclusive language.” The list includes replacing the words “white list” with “permit-list” and “master/slave” with “leader/companion.”
Last month, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey donated three million dollars to the “Know Your Rights” camp established by former NFL player Colin Kaepernick, in order to “improve the liberation and well-being” of minority communities.
Bank Morgan has announced that it is throwing out outdated programming expressions, as the Black Lives Matter movement is making its way through the corporate world.
The company said that the expressions appeared in some of their technical regulations and programming codes.
Last month, the largest program development site, GitHub, announced that it was working on changing the term “master” in the programming language.
This website, which is owned by Microsoft, is used by 50 million developers to store and update projects.
Google’s browser Chromium and the Android operating system have also encouraged developers to avoid using the terms “blacklist” and “white list”.
Global brands are also carefully analyzing the names and logos of their products to avoid racial stereotypes.
In recent weeks, a number of well-known brands have announced that they will change or reconsider their branding.
These are the food production company Quaker Oats, which will rename the Aunt Jemima syrup and food line, which is based on the racial stereotype of a black woman who works for a white family and takes care of their children.
At the same time, social networks are also under pressure to deal with hate posts, and Facebook is facing a boycott of paid advertisements on that platform launched by the Stop Hate for Profit campaign.
Ford, Adidas, Coca-Cola, Junilever, and Starbucks have joined the campaign, whose goal is to remove hate content on social networks.