Did the FBI Compile an 83-Page Guide to Internet Slang?

Truth Verify

Even the FBI needs enable with online lingo, as evidenced by an 83-web page interior document they unveiled in 2014 many thanks to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The document reentered the internet’s consciousness by way of the latest reporting on it from Enter and The Verge.

The doc, out there on archive.org, has a extensive record of phrases a single would normally encounter on the internet and in text messages, ranging from LMAO (laughing my ass off) to IITYWTMWYKM (if I explain to you what this implies will you kiss me). 

The document consists of a “Twitter Shorthand” segment that has 2,800 entries and states: 

With the introduction of Twitter and other social media venues on the World wide web, the use of shorthand and acronyms has exploded. The DFs Intelligence Exploration Aid Unit (IRSU) has set together an substantial – but significantly from exhaustive – list of shorthand and acronyms employed in Twitter and other social media venues these as fast messages, Facebook and MySpace,

This checklist has about 2,800 entries you should locate useful in your operate or for trying to keep up with your little ones and/or grandchildren. We’ll continue to update/increase this list. If you have some suggestions for additions, come to feel free of charge to include a new entry by clicking on the “New” tab beneath.

Some other slang phrases that stand out are NIFOC (bare in front of laptop), WOS (waste of room/spouse in excess of shoulder), and H9 (actually hate – H8+1). 

The FOIA request was submitted by way of MuckRock, an organization that allows the community receive info from the authorities. The Verge claimed on this back again in 2014 when MuckRock introduced all of its communications with the FBI.

This is a request under the Liberty of Information and facts Act. I hereby request the next records:

A duplicate of all documents or documentation available to FBI agents or other FBI staff or contractors which provides facts on how to interpret or comprehend so-termed “leetspeak.” Leetspeak (or leet or 1337, etc.) is a obfuscated kind of conversation the place letters are changed with numbers or symbols or unconventional spellings or abbreviations are utilized, or a mixture of these aspects. This conversation is popular between hackers and may perhaps be available to personal computer crimes investigators or employed in instruction them to assistance them read or have an understanding of conversation amongst computer system hackers.

Remember to contain all styles of these information, such as but not confined to memos, manuals, PowerPoint shows, instruction supplies, emails, and many others.

The entire document is here for your perusal.

Resources:

Federal Bureau of Investigation. “FBI Tutorial to Net Slang.” Online Archive, http://archive.org/particulars/FBIGuideToInternetSlang. Accessed 21 Apr. 2022.

Khaw, Cassandra. “The FBI Is Hip to Your World-wide-web Slang.” The Verge, 18 June 2014, https://www.theverge.com/2014/6/18/5819892/fbi-world wide web-slang-checklist. Accessed 21 Apr. 2022.

“Leet Speak (FBI).” MuckRock, https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-the united states-10/leet-discuss-fbi-10154/. Accessed 21 Apr. 2022.

Rauwerda, Annie. “The FBI’s 83-Webpage Guidebook to World-wide-web Slang Is an Absolute Rollercoaster.” Enter, https://www.inputmag.com/lifestyle/fbi-guide-to-web-slang. Accessed 21 Apr. 2022.

Roth, Emma. “Today I Figured out That the FBI Has an 83-Web site Manual to Online Communicate.” The Verge, 18 Apr. 2022, https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/18/23030750/fbi-83-web site-guide-internet-communicate. Accessed 21 Apr. 2022.