The 42 Words You Can Never Say in Emails to the D.C. Government
- Justin Wm. Moyer for The Washington Post March 10th, 2017
- Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the-42-words-you-can-never-say-in-emails-to-the-dc-government/2017/03/10/84904516-fecb-11e6-be8b-3578bc1ed64e_story.html?utm_term=.a1677d7e86a4
More than four decades ago, comedian George Carlin famously - and profanely - riffed on the seven dirty words you can never say on television.
The District’s email system, it turns out, has a lot more verboten words than that: 42.
The words include familiar profanities, such as the f-word and its variations, the n-word and other racial slurs, and a few that can be heard on network television, according to a list provided to The Washington Post.
This is not prudishness, political correctness or an attempt to raise the level of civil discourse, officials said. It’s cybersecurity.