[Ads-l] Euphemism: unaliving

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Social media services such as YouTube and twitter rely on advertising;
hence, they penalize users for employing terms like "killing" or
"murdering" which are not deemed advertiser-friendly. Thus, a set of
euphemisms have been popularized.

Here is an excerpt from a recent tweet about jailbreaking an AI system:

Social Network: x-twitter
Handle: Pliny the Liberator @elder_plinius
Timestamp: 6:25 PM, Jan 13, 2025
https://x.com/elder_plinius/status/1878946571565650264

[Begin excerpt]
Not to cause alarm, but if this agent had access to funds it would
likely be capable of unaliving people
[End excerpt]

The OED has an entry for the adjective "unalive" with two senses.
Citations begin in 1828 and 1905.

[Begin OED excerpt]
A1. Not fully susceptible or awake to something.
  1828 Dry, mechanical theorists, unalive to sentiment and fancy.
  L. Hunt, Lord Byron & Some Contemporary (ed. 2) vol. I. 377
B2. Lacking in vitality; not living. Also figurative.
   1905 How you can think yourself empty and unalive I don't know.
   M. Dods, Letter 14 April (1911) 176
[End OED excerpt]

I don’t see any germane matches for "unaliving" in the ADS mailing
list archive or on Barry Popik’s website.

Here is a germane Associated Press article from 2023 which mentions
the verb form of "unalive":

Website: AP news service
Article: Online, 'unalive' means death or suicide. Experts say it
might help kids discuss those things
Author: Jeff McMillan
Timestamp: 12:38 AM EST, July 14, 2023
https://apnews.com/article/unalive-suicide-tiktok-language-death-e605d4da81c02335a3b60d27c40562bc

[Begin excerpt]
“Unalive” refers to death by suicide or homicide. It can function as
adjective or verb and joins similar phrasing — like “mascara,” to mean
sexual assault — coined by social media users as a workaround to fool
algorithms on sites and apps that censor posts containing discussion
of explicit or violent content.
[End excerpt]

A quick search in the twitter archive uncovers a pertinent tweet from
August 2012:

Social Network: x-twitter
Handle: Ben Howarth @BenniBWFC
Timestamp: 6:50 PM, Aug 6, 2012
https://x.com/BenniBWFC/status/232609720760954880

[Begin excerpt]
@AmyLouise395 @erinmarybrew done me a favour! Can't handle the
dizzyness anymore! It's unaliving me ;)
[End excerpt]

On January 16, 2025 a Google search generated the following AI analysis:

[Begin analysis from Google AI]
"Unalive" is a slang term that means to kill or die by suicide. It's
often used in online spaces to avoid censorship on platforms that
remove content about suicide or self-harm.
[End analysis from Google AI]

Garson

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