Microsoft banned this word from its Discord server. It’s now a viral phenomenon—people are using it any way they can

Asking the internet to stop doing anything almost always backfires.

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A note to corporations everywhere: Asking politely for the internet to stop making fun of you often has the opposite effect. Microsoft may have just learned that lesson the hard way, after it accidentally helped a not-so-nice nickname go viral.

As Microsoft’s AI assistant Copilot is integrated into features across the company’s products—from its controversial Recall feature, to a dedicated AI button on Windows keyboards—it’s catching more and more flak, including a new term coined just to clown on Copilot: “Microslop,” a portmanteau of “Microsoft” and “AI slop.”

The word was flying freely on Microsoft’s official Copilot Discord server, until users noticed a new filter had gone into effect.

On March 1, Windows Latest reported that users’ messages were being blocked if they contained “Microslop,” instead garnering a message from server moderators reading, “Your message contain phrase that is inappropriate.”

But a small slap on the wrist wasn’t about to stop an army of “sloppers,” as one user described themselves. Instead, Discord users brainstormed workarounds for the filter, like swapping one letter for a number—“Microsl0p,” with a zero instead of a one, was a popular choice—or inventing new terms that conveyed the same message. “Sloppysoft” and “MicroStop No-Pilot” were among the new pitches (not quite as catchy, but they get the point across).

Things on Discord got even more dire when Microsoft locked the server after the backlash, blocking users from viewing the chat history and sending new messages.

News of the “Microslop” filter quickly broke containment, spreading across social media and creating plenty of new fans of the word, who immediately added it to their lexicons. “Keep saying Microslop it seems to make them very upset,” one poster quipped.

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