Don’t come between a social commenter and his Pecker

The Boston Globe published an AP story about David Pecker, CEO of the parent company of The National Enquirer, who kept the secrets of Donald Trump and other media figures in a safe as leverage. This kind of story is catnip to the mostly liberal Globe readers, but there’s a problem — the Globe’s content system won’t let you type the word “pecker” in a comment.

Commenters may be mostly idiots ready to tear each other to bits, but they’ll certainly work together to get past any restrictions on their ability to post. Here’s a sampling:

Squall Line quite a pickle for the guy. The Globe won’t let me use his last name.

OrrScores This (insert his last name here)-head probably has some interesting info to share. No question DT is pis$ed about this one.

RiverCruiser The globe may want to fix this little Pec*er problem. I have a feeling his name is going to be used a lot moving forward.

FransBevy I’ve been trying them to change Dïck Cheney’s name for this very reason.

cynicalguy just use his name with a Boston accent. Peckuh.. and Peckuhhead … should work…

FionnFile What’s wrong with “Peckah”?

FransBevy If you have an Apple keyboard hold down a vowel until an alternate letter comes up and use that:
Pëcker
Peçker
Peckér, etc…

RiverCruiser In windows its ‘Alt130’ . As in “Donald is finding out that David is a real Pécker”

user_1700434 Immunity for David Peck er well worth it. Corroborating testimony for what Cohen already divulged very important for Mr. Mueller. Stand firm Beauregard.

overtrick Pe*ker is a wonderful human being and a community asset. It’s a shame to see him mixed up in this.

zots Melania is laughing her butt off about this headline in Huff Post: “REPORT: TRUMP LOSES PECK’ER!”

WFC49 P*cker looming large in front of Trump.

MisterHand Once again, Drumpf’s P e c k e r is gonna cause him problems …

Foogie Pipsqueak POTUS will pee his pants over this pickle with Pėcker.

greentechadvocates I am now convinced we are living in bad pulp fiction. The author needs to rename some characters. David Pe*ker? Reality Winner? Too obvious!

Putting aside the potty humor, this is how social media works.

In China, users evade social media restrictions on posting the names of disgraced officials by using puns and rhyming slang.

Blocking content is futile. You might as well fight the tide. The commenters have the numbers.

This is why sites like Facebook have to depend on algorithms that rate users, rather than content. People who want to comment don’t want to be banned from the sites where they post.

Blocking accounts isn’t easy either (ask Twitter), but it’s enough to shift public spaces from cesspools into just places where annoying people gather and throw things at each other. That’s entertaining enough that most people stick around.

In the meantime, sites like the Globe need to get a little more sophisticated than an easily evaded blacklist of “bad words” like pecker.