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HandWiki. Scunthorpe Problem. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/29387 (accessed on 24 September 2026).
HandWiki. Scunthorpe Problem. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/29387. Accessed September 24, 2026.
HandWiki. "Scunthorpe Problem" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/29387 (accessed September 24, 2026).
HandWiki. (2022, October 14). Scunthorpe Problem. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/29387
HandWiki. "Scunthorpe Problem." Encyclopedia. Web. 14 October, 2022.
Scunthorpe Problem
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The Scunthorpe problem is the unintentional blocking of websites, e-mails, forum posts or search results by a spam filter or search engine because their text contains a string (or substring) of letters that appear to have an obscene or otherwise unacceptable meaning. Names, abbreviations, and technical terms are most often cited as being affected by the issue. The problem arises since computers can easily identify strings of text within a document, but interpreting words of this kind requires considerable ability to interpret a wide range of contexts, possibly across many cultures, which is an extremely difficult task. As a result, broad blocking rules may result in false positives affecting innocent phrases.

technical terms e-mails spam

References

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  39. Hern, Alex (27 May 2020). "Anti-porn filters stop Dominic Cummings trending on Twitter". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/27/anti-porn-filters-stop-dominic-cummings-trending-on-twitter. 
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