A new font has made it impossible type the word “refugee.”
In an alarming example of how technology can direct behavior and influence thought, Wired reports Swedish design studio Essen International has developed the new “Common Sans” font.
Within it is a hidden trick that effectively bans the user from writing the word “refugee.”
When attempted, programming within the font auto-corrects the word to “human.”
“Often this is what you read in the headlines, about refugees, and you forget that they’re humans,” says creative director Robert Holmkvist.
Sweden has been reeling under the weigh of the refugee surge.
The Guardian reported in November:
Sweden needs “respite” from the tens of thousands of refugees knocking at its door, the government has said, announcing tough measures to deter asylum seekers in a sharp reversal of its open-door policy towards people fleeing war and persecution.
The country’s generous asylum regime would revert to the “EU minimum”, Sweden’s prime minister, Stefan Löfven, said on Tuesday, revealing that most refugees would receive only temporary residence permits from April.
Identity checks would be imposed on all modes of transport, and the right to bring families to Sweden would be severely restricted, he said.
“We are adapting Swedish legislation temporarily so that more people choose to seek asylum in other countries … We need respite,” Löfven said, criticising the EU for failing to agree to spread refugees more evenly around the bloc.
“It pains me that Sweden is no longer capable of receiving asylum seekers at the high level we do today. We simply cannot do any more.”
Holmkvist believes the slight of hand in the new font is one way to fight back at what he calls his country’s “anti-immigrant sentiment.”
“We knew that kind of function existed, and we had this idea about how maybe you could do that in a bigger sense, not just aesthetically, and change the meaning of the word,” Holmkvist says, according to Wired.
“The traditional role of typefaces and typography is to carry a message by not interfering.
“Common Sans does the opposite. It’s the typeface telling you, and interfering with you.”
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