W&L senior CS major Katie Yurechko ’24 co-authored a paper titled “You Can (Not) Say What you Want: Using Algospeak to Contest and Evade Algorithmic Content Moderation on TikTok,”. Katie collaborated with Ella Steen, a student at Gordon College, and Daniel Klug, a systems scientist at Carnegie Mellon University. The paper was recently featured online in “Social Media and Society” published by Sage Journals.
This paper talks about how people who make videos on TikTok are starting to use special language called “algospeak” more and more. They do this to get around rules that they think are unfair about what they can and can’t post. These video creators frequently come up with new words or change existing ones, or they might use emojis or hand gestures instead of words. They do this to stop TikTok’s algorithm from removing their videos.
Yurechko, who double majors in computer science and philosophy with a minor in poverty and human capability, is dedicated to backing marginalized groups and advocating for diversity within the field of computing.