The British communications watchdog Ofcom has deemed that words such as Boomer, Karen and snowflake are mildly offensive to TV and radio audiences, however, has stopped short of banning the terms.
Ofcom was forced to act following a number of complaints from TV and radio listeners about certain words.
The regulator examined the following 10 words to determine if they were offensive to audiences. They included:
Karen – A pejorative term for a middle-aged white woman who are likely to complain about trivial matters.
Boomer – Entitled people born between 1946 to 1964.
Gammon – The term refers in particular to the colour of a person’s flushed face when expressing their strong opinions.
Libturd – A combination of liberal and turd to insult people with left-leaning views, particularly those who vote Democrats in the US.
Terf – A feminist who excludes the rights of transgender women from their advocacy of women’s rights.
Snowflake – Young adults of the 2010s, viewed as being less resilient and more prone to take offence than previous generations.
Remoaner – A name given to a person believing that the UK should remain in the European Union and not supporting Brexit.
Femi-Nazi – A pejorative term for feminists which was popularised by politically conservative American radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.
Nat – The shortened term for nationalist.
Yoon – A derogatory term for Scottish people who support the United Kingdom and are opposed to Scottish independence.
Ofcom determined that Karen, Boomer, gammon and terf were all mildly offensive terms, while femi-nazi and yoon were considered moderately offensive.
Adam Baxter, Ofcom’s director of standards and audience protection, commented: “These findings will help broadcasters to make these often finely balanced judgements and better inform their decisions about the broadcasting of offensive language and other content.
“The report also helps us at Ofcom understand and take account of audience’s views when making complex and nuanced decisions about potentially offensive content on TV and radio, while having full regard to freedom of expression,” Baxter said.
The findings have caused a bit of a stir in the UK, with detractors slamming the decision as censorship, while others – particularly women named Karen – saw the funny side.
Check out some of the social media reaction below:
Ofcom are set to be put in charge of regulating social media companies.
They’re already putting together lists of “offensive” words like Karen, Gammon, Libtard, Remoaner, and Snowflake.
A recipe for chilling speech and inevitable censorship.https://t.co/nRgXyvPbfV
— Matthew Lesh (@matthewlesh) September 22, 2021
Just when @Ofcom were doing so well with some of there rulings and decisions they revert to factory settings and pull this nonsense.
This is frankly pearl-clutching nonsense and another nail in the coffin for #FreeSpeech.https://t.co/RUOi3Jwpcd
— Peter C. Barnes (@Barnesy19) September 22, 2021
Just when @Ofcom were doing so well with some of there rulings and decisions they revert to factory settings and pull this nonsense.
This is frankly pearl-clutching nonsense and another nail in the coffin for #FreeSpeech.https://t.co/RUOi3Jwpcd
— Peter C. Barnes (@Barnesy19) September 22, 2021
I think it’s time to change my namehttps://t.co/2RoR9lJMR3 via @MailOnline
— Karen Storey (@StoreytellerK) September 22, 2021
Ofcom asked Britons what they think counts as offensive language, which is revealing about society.
-People care less about swearing and much more about racist or transphobic language
-“Karen”, “snowflake” and “gammon” aren’t considered seriously offensivehttps://t.co/fIZxhytxAP— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) September 22, 2021
