Update: This article has been updated from its original posted version.
For 14 days, a racial slur was displayed in Zoom subtitles on Delta College’s website and the League of Women Voters of San Joaquin County website.
Since February, I’ve been reporting on the Stockton election forums at the Dawn Mabalon Forum at Delta. However, I was unable to attend the first forum due to work obligations. Luckily, Delta’s IT department technician, Scott Goodman, recorded the event through Zoom.
On Feb. 7, the first forum was for the Stockton mayor and District 2 city council candidates. The recording was posted on Feb. 12. On the right side of the video, viewers can see the subtitles of what the candidates are saying. However, Zoom isn’t perfect. Whenever a candidate says ‘San Joaquin County’ the subtitles read as “Samuel King County.”
In the last half of the event, former Stockton mayor, Anthony Silva, is running for the District 2 seat. Silva talks about Stockton’s homelessness and how it affects the community. He also mentions crime and lack of lighting on ‘Bianchi Road’ and ‘Knickerbocker Drive’. However, Zoom did not parse ‘Knickerbocker’– instead displaying the N-word.
Six days into the public display, Delta College Dean of Regional and Distance Education, Vivie Sinou, sent Delta staff an email about the Zoom Profanity filter on Feb. 18. The rollout of the filter was unrelated to the Zoom transcript or recording of the candidate forum.
The email states:
“This is to inform you of a new feature, Profanity Filter, that was just released by Zoom, and is now applied to Delta’s Zoom accounts. The profanity filter prevents inappropriate words from being displayed by Zoom’s automated captions. The filter applies to all Zoom products utilizing Zoom’s transcription services, including automated captions in meetings and webinars, Meeting Summary with AI Companion, and recording transcripts. This feature comes with a database of common inappropriate words, but we can add additional ones manually, as/if needed. Likewise, if any words are filtered in error, they can be deleted from the list. If you run into any issues with this feature, please submit an IT HelpDesk ticket.”
Sinou was reached out via email and she did not reply for comment.
Delta’s marketing and communications director, Alex Breitler, was asked about the incident.
“IT was not aware of the issue and immediately edited the transcript once it was brought to their attention,” said Breitler. “This event ran for 1 hour and 32 minutes, and with the many other Zoom recordings that take place every day at Delta College, it’s not feasible for staff to check all transcripts. The good news is that the new Zoom profanity filter will make these types of incidents much less likely in the future. Delta College was notified on Feb. 15 that the Zoom profanity filter was going to be auto-enabled on Feb. 18, after the forum had already taken place. We’re glad the filter is now in place to prevent issues like this from happening again.”
Yes, Delta was notified. I watched the recording on Thursday, Feb. 22 and the audio transcript was not edited until Monday, Feb. 26.
Before the panel begins, members from the League of Women Voters of San Joaquin County mention that the event is recorded on Zoom and is also projected on the big screen in upper Danner Hall. If there were people in Danner watching the event, where they could see the audio transcript, no one mentioned seeing the ‘N-word’? It’s really hard to miss.
While there is no evidence that the broadcast was viewed in Danner, would the slur have been included?
The transcription of the profanity filter was launched in August 2023, according to Zoom Supports’ website.
“Account owners and admins can enable or disable the profanity filter feature that prevents transcription from displaying inappropriate words. They can import widely available 3rd party lists, eliminating the need to manually curate offensive words, and enabling easy customization according to their organization’s needs. This filter applies to all Zoom products utilizing transcription services, including Meetings, Webinars, Smart Summaries, and Recordings. This feature must be enabled by Zoom,” according to the website.
So… why is the N-word even part of Zoom’s subtitles? Automation is not always perfect when it comes to technological inputs of displays, automated messaging and/or transcripts.
Being part black, it was shocking to see the N-word blasted on a Zoom transcript at a political event, posted on multiple websites. Even if it was an honest mistake, the IT department uses Zoom often to know if the audio transcript displays vulgarities. Brietler mentions it’s not feasible for staff to check all transcripts, but you can’t always depend on a perfect outcome of automated closed captions.