Slashdot Mirror
The FBI's Jargon List: Internet Acronyms Galore
Jason Koebler (3528235) writes Internet slang: Do you use it? If so, do it AYOR (at your own risk), because the FBI knows exactly what you're saying thanks to the agency's insane list of "Twitter shorthand." Rather than just rely on Urban Dictionary or a Google search, the agency has compiled an 83 page list of more than 2,800 acronyms. The FBI responded to a FOIA request with one of the most illegible scans of a document you'll ever see, embedded on a CD — so maybe the agency isn't all that up on its technology, or maybe it's just doing its best to KTAS (keep this a secret). Please use one of your favorites in a grammatical sentence referencing current events, and/or your favorite food, to help build up the corpus.
According to the list, one of the translations of BFF is Big Fat Friend. Stephen Lynch would be proud.
They are not allowed to use the Internet. It is not secure.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
'children' is a shorthand for US Citizens.
They'll never catch me then. I speak a secret language called "Syntactically Correct American English", an archaic language no one understands any more.
According to the FBI list, preferred expansion of LOL is "Lots of Love". Example usage inside the FBI complex: Your co-workers father has passed after a long illness. Suggested text message: "Heard your dad died: LOL."
It's part of Gödel's incompleteness theorem: for any list of acronyms, there will always be acronyms that are true, but that are unlisted wthin the list.