

In the same Times profile, Peckham claimed that he had not sought out any venture financing and that “his company did not generate a huge amount of cash-though he declined to give specific figures-but said it was enough to support him and the site.” But Peckham’s word is all we have to go on. “The guiding principle of a site like that is simple to understand-it’s the profit motive.” Like other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Peckham pitches Urban Dictionary as a social good. Roberts, assistant professor of information studies at UCLA, told the New Republic. “The bottom line here I would assume is that the site is intended to make money,” Sarah T. And to scrub the site with any effectiveness would require a huge team of moderators, which in turn would require a significant investment. Racial and sexual slurs are allowed, racist and sexist entries are not.”īut even a cursory look at the site reveals that there has been virtually no effort to edit out racism and sexism. Reject nonsense, inside jokes, or anything submitted in capital letters. He said it was rare that definitions appeared that were ‘really racist or sexist.’” In a 2011 interview with the Guardian, Peckham laid out a few guidelines: “Publish celebrity names, but reject ‘real life’ names. Peckham says he rarely edits the site or removes words that might be deemed offensive, unless they are aimed at a specific person or reveal someone’s private information. In its 2014 profile, the Times wrote, “Mr. Then, definitions are ranked by how many up- or down-votes they have received. In 2013 it was reported that only five votes are needed for a submission to make the cut. To contribute to the lexicon of our generation, users merely submit an entry that “volunteer editors” (i.e., other users) can vote in or out. It is a pure product of the internet hordes, and the internet hordes are racist and sexist. Hillary Clinton is defined as a “cock juggling thunder cunt.” Feminism? “The biggest disgrace to my gender.”ĭespite its implicit promise to clue people into what urban people-read: minorities-are saying, Urban Dictionary does not draw from any source of expertise. As Kimberly Lawson pointed out previously at Broadly, Urban Dictionary is also insanely sexist.
