It is a server config option. Lemmy.ml uses a banned word list, while other instances don’t. The words are still there and visible from instances that don’t censor.
I can say for sure that I saw OP’s post uncensored which made me come into the comments to find out what’s going on. So at some point this was passed along uncensored.
![Why the [removed] do swears show up as [removed]?](https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/490732aa-5496-481f-b706-83d3056b8d58.png){kind=link}
It is a server config option. Lemmy.ml uses a banned word list, while other instances don’t. The words are still there and visible from instances that don’t censor.
Fuck
Poo
Mao Zedong was a bìtch
This doesn’t seem to quite be true, based on my testing in the comment here.
It seems that if your comment is made on a censored instance, the word is completely replaced, and isn’t visible to non-censored instances.
If this isn’t accurate and you know more about how the code actually works, I’d love to know what the details are.
I can say for sure that I saw OP’s post uncensored which made me come into the comments to find out what’s going on. So at some point this was passed along uncensored.