Twitter and JP Morgan drop ‘master’ and ‘slave’ terms
Twitter is going to discontinue the use of software terms ‘master’ and ‘slave’, as well as more common phrases such as ‘blacklist’, as it tries to move toward inclusive language.
US banking giant JP Morgan is to make a similar move, following global anti-racism protests and the killing of George Floyd by the police in Minneapolis.
Master/slave is a coding model where one process controls others and serves as a communication hub for the group. Blacklist refers to a list of items that are banned, such as forbidden websites, and conversely, whitelist for approved content.
It follows in the footsteps of Microsoft’s Github, a coding repository giant used by more than 50m developers which said it would be dropping use of the terminology last month.
Twitter released a document of terms that it would be replacing with more inclusive language, in a move that could prove costly for the tech giant.
Twitter’s head of its engineering team Michael Montano said: “Words matter. We want [Twitter’s engineering] to reflect our values and support our journey to become more inclusive.
“We are committed to adopting inclusive language in our code, configuration, documentation and beyond.”
Though the campaign to change the terms has been ongoing for years, it has gained new momentum under the Black Lives Matter movement.
Other sectors are also adjusting their practices, including brands such as Aunt Jemima’s pancake syrup and Quaker Oats which are reviewing their names and logos to challenge antiquated stereotypes about people of colour.