A Brand Primer on 'Algospeak,' the Covert Language Shaping Online Chatter

With 'unalive' and 'seggs,' you've said a mouthful

I can relate to the challenges brands face in talking to their audiences these days. I have two teenage daughters who think it’s uncool if I understand them. They speak in code to protect sensitive information. And also to annoy me.

Today’s audiences are the same. The modern internet is, in many ways, a hostile environment full of spies, miscreants and narcs. It’s no wonder savvy native users have learned to protect themselves. And like much of online culture, there’s also street cred in it. Fluency isn’t just about being understood. It’s about fitting in.

Enter “algospeak”—the art of outsmarting algorithms. It’s when you say “unalive” instead of “dead” and “seggs” instead of… well, you get it. What started as a way to slip past the algorithm police—aka the parents of the internet—has evolved into something way more interesting. Using this coded language is like a secret handshake that says, “I get how this place works” and “I belong here.”

It’s part creative flex, part performance art and part survival strategy. Last year, TikTok removed 147 million videos and banned 214 million accounts for breaking its rules—many, of course, for good reason. In such rough terrain, people turn to algospeak to make sure they don’t get caught in the crossfire.

For instance, when people tack on “in Minecraft” to the end of their sentence, they’re aiming to mask something that might get them banned or flagged by implying it’s all part of a hypothetical game.

Similarly, during the temporary TikTok ban at the beginning of the year, people began using the algospeak term “clock app,” which meant TikTok, to express their discontent with the political reality. Also, in the midst of the brief mass exodus to Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, users began referring to the Chinese platform as the “little red book app” to evade TikTok censorship.

Now, algospeak is entering our day-to-day lives. Earlier this year, a linguist posted a TikTok about a controversy surrounding an exhibit at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, in which a display sign reported, “Kurt Cobain un-alived himself at 27.” While many visitors were appalled by what they saw as disrespectful slang invading a serious memorial, as the linguist points out, that’s how language works—it evolves, adapts and spreads.

Why Does This Matter To Brands?

Here’s the thing. As storytellers and brand builders, we’re used to having a captive audience. But those days are “unalive.”

Audiences now control what gets watched, shared and created. And in that world, understanding the vernacular of the moment is essential. It can mean the difference between breaking through and being laughed at—or worse, being ignored.

If you want to be effective, you need to learn the rules. More importantly, you need to understand why those rules exist and how they pertain to you.

The goal isn’t to sound like a chronically online teen—please don’t. It’s to recognize what’s actually going on here. When your audience is speaking in code, sometimes they’re having fun. Other times? They’re telling you they feel like it’s a requirement. And if you’re trying to build genuine brand trust on these platforms, both motivations should matter to you.

So even if you don’t catch the word of the week, at least understand the vibes. Because if you don’t know why the internet talks the way it does, don’t be surprised when it talks back—and cuts you out of the conversation entirely.