Scunthorpe Problem

What Does Scunthorpe Problem Mean?

The Scunthorpe problem is a relatively common technology issue where systems censor data based on faulty or irrelevant designations. It's named after the town of Scunthorpe in North Lincolnshire, England.

Techopedia Explains Scunthorpe Problem

After some British technologies censored the names of towns like Scunthorpe based on faulty algorithms identifying them as obscene words, the "Scunthorpe problem" became part of the IT parlance. In a Scunthorpe problem situation, technologies are taking text strings including the letters of obscene words and characterizing them as obscenities, blocking them or redacting them for users.

The Scunthorpe problem shows how imprecise or blanket activity can hinder the utility of filtering or censoring technologies.

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Margaret Rouse

Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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