Scunthorpe problem

The Scunthorpe problem occurs when a spam filter or search engine blocks e-mails or search results because their text contains a string of letters that are shared with an obscene word. While computers can easily identify strings of text within a document, broad blocking rules may result in false positives, causing innocent phrases to be blocked.

• Residents of Penistone, South Yorkshire, experienced problems because the town's name includes the substring penis.
• Lightwater in Surrey suffered similarly because its name contains the substring twat.
• Residents of Clitheroe (Lancashire, England) have been repeatedly inconvenienced because their town's name includes the substring clit, which (among other meanings) is a slang for "clitoris".