Why Does Yahoo! Buzz Think “Nigerian” Is A Bad Word?

Yahoo! Buzz, the search engine’s Digg-like social bookmarking site, seems to be confused about the difference between Nigeria, the country, and the racial epithet of sort of similar spelling. In a link to the AP story “Airliner plot raises fears about al-Qaida in Yemen,” the blurb used to tease the article begins with an odd mix-up: “A n****ian man’s claim that his attempt to blow up a U.S. plane originated with al-Qaida’s network inside Yemen…” N****ian, really?

Now, surely (or hopefully?) this is the case of automatic language sensors designed to *star* any word that might be offensive, but in a way this, too, is questionable! You would think there would be some way to override the system so it wouldn’t appear that someone’s native country is an epithet. And do these censors catch shiitake, as in mushroom? Or even dam, as in beaver’s? Bizarre, to say the least.

A click through to the Yahoo! News article in question reveals an uncensored version (“A Nigerian man’s claim…”) and a newly capital N, with no sign of the Buzz confusion. But as of now, the Buzz entry has 209 votes and 153 comments, none of which seem to address the odd blurb.

(h/t)

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