Why The Battlefield 5 Profanity Filter Censored Terms Like “DLC” and “White Man”
DICE announced that Battlefield 5 on PC would feature a profanity filter several weeks ago. Developers described the feature as a sad necessity due to the conduct of certain players online. However, when the filter was first used in the recent Open Beta, it attracted derision from fans for aggressively over-censoring a bizarre variety of words; including things such as “DLC” and “white man”. Following the Open Beta, DICE identified the Battlefield 5 profanity filter as a feature in need of tweaking. Now, the game’s multiplayer producer has explained what went wrong.
Why the Battlefield 5 Profanity Filter Was Overly Aggressive in Censoring Words
David Sirland, the Multiplayer Producer for Battlefield 5, took to Twitter two days ago to explain what was wrong with the profanity filter. While some fans were quick to criticise DICE for “political correctness” when they found that the term “white man” was being banned, those who know a little about how such filters work suspected another issue; it now seems that they were correct. While DICE may perhaps input some terms manually, an algorithm controls most, if not all of the filter. As such, it’s extremely unlikely that anyone manually censored the term “white man”. Given that plenty of far more innocuous terms were also censored, like “DLC”; it’s clear that something was wrong with the algorithm. Sirland has now confirmed that was the case.
According to Sirland, the Battlefield 5 profanity filter uses; “a dictionary derived from several EA games based on some sort of AI learning algorithm”. Adding that he did not understand fully how the system works in detail, Sirland clarified that the algorithm; “has tagged certain combinations of words to be escalators to toxic chat (or similar…) we will change this.”
Because the system is using a dictionary derived from several EA games based on some sort of AI learning algorithm that has tagged certain combinations of words to be escalators to toxic chat (or similar, I don't claim to understand how it works in detail) – we will change this.
— David Sirland (@tiggr_) September 15, 2018
Interesting to note is the phrase Sirland uses; “escalators to toxic chat”. The phrase suggests that the algorithm was not only censoring profanity; in fact, it was also censoring words which it determines will lead to the use of profanity. Clearly, the algorithm was too aggressive, in any case. It will need to be tweaked by DICE before the final release. Fortunately, the studio is clearly well aware of the issue.