Twitter engineers have been working since January in an internal effort to replace the problematic but common programming language such as “master” and “slave” CNET reported. It is part of a larger effort among open source developers who have been working to remove references to slavery from the programming community.
Microsoft-owned GitHub made a similar move last month when CEO Nat Friedman said the company was replacing the term “teacher” with more neutral language. Regynald Augustin was one of the programmers who led the effort.
Twitter eng recently shared that we would be making the language in our code, documents and settings more inclusive. I want to talk about how we got here and what we have done so far. Https://t.co/87RybaAiYA
– Regynald (@negroprogrammer) July 2, 2020
How ZDNet He notes that the initiative began in 2014 with the Drupal project, which began replacing master and slave with terms like “primary” and “replica.”
In addition to phrases like “slave”, “master” and “blacklist”, engineering teams on Twitter recommend going one step further to change other terms that could be considered racist, capable or sexist, CNET reported. The list includes the change from “man hours” to “person hours”, the change from “black list” to “denial list”, and “exempted” to “inherited status”.
Inclusive language plays a critical role in fostering an environment where everyone belongs. On Twitter, the language we have been using in our code does not reflect our values as a company or represent the people we serve. We want to change that. #WordsMatter https://t.co/JVO8968B7K
– Twitter Engineering (@TwitterEng) July 2, 2020
The company has supported the drive for more reflective language. “The work the team did here will inform a broader work stream underway to guide our language to be more inclusive and more humane as a company,” a Twitter spokesperson said in an email to The edge Thursday.
UPDATE July 2 1:33 PM ET: Added Twitter comment
