Government Teams users face another ******* month of filtered captions

Microsoft Teams will extend its profanity filtering for government users until August, a delay of one month compared to the original plan. In 2023, Microsoft introduced a toggle that enabled the profanity filter by default in Teams Live Captions. This filter replaced offensive words with asterisks and was a personal preference rather than a setting controlled by meeting organizers or tenant administrators.

However, Microsoft later decided to disable the filter by default, aiming to provide captions that more accurately reflect the spoken content and meet accessibility needs, as well as comply with regional regulations such as the EU's requirements. Users could still turn the filter back on if they desired. The change applied to newly created users and those who had not previously modified the setting.

Consequently, Live Captions might display unfiltered language during calls, a feature that raised questions about the reasoning behind the default censorship. Microsoft initially planned to roll out the change in June but has now pushed the deadline to August. However, for users in specific government environments like Government Community Cloud (GCC), GCC High, and the Department of Defense, the filter will remain active until the end of August.

A delay in the rollout has left users unsure whether they should expect censored or uncensored captions during calls with certain branches of the administration. Microsoft was approached for clarification regarding the delay, but no explanation was provided at the time of reporting.