Redaction/expungement are literary devices common to containment fiction articles that censor information in order to create mystery, intrigue, and drama. The tactic is associated with containment fiction documents/articles, and not precedent forms of fiction, e.g. The Holders or creepypasta in general. The device originated on 4chan’s /x/ in an effort to further convey a bureaucratic and governmental persona to the writing.

Redaction and expungement can take numerous forms:

• “[DATA REDACTED]/[REDACTED]”
• “[DATA EXPUNGED]/[EXPUNGED]”
• the use of fullblock (“blackboxes”, █) or other, stylized methods of obfuscating text (e.g. RPC-365)

Redaction/expungement does not include stylized text (e.g. animated text, Zalgo text), or casual removals of impertinent data in containment fiction articles, such as stated omissions.

Expungement and redaction was used more liberally in earlier eras of the SCP Series, arguably culminating in March 2008 with SCP-597 (“[DATA EXPUNGED]”). In modern eras, expungement and redaction is more conservative, with readers generally having stricter thresholds for their acceptable use, e.g. that the author needs to have something in mind when redacting or expunging, as opposed to it being a gimmick, or lazy/sloppy writing.^[1]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/avoid-the-blackbox, archive According to a writing guide, excessive expungement/redaction should be avoided whenever possible, and perform some function in service of a larger narrative.^[2]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/avoid-the-blackbox

From the SCP Wiki’s “How to Write an SCP” page:^[3]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/how-to-write-an-scp

“Redactions, [DATA EXPUNGED], and similar censorship can be used to add mystery or remove extraneous data. You should know what information you are expunging. Don’t expunge something so you don’t need to write it; hide key information to draw the reader in deeper. Make them wonder what’s behind the hidden information.

Also: don’t redact anything in containment procedures. If the procedures are redacted, how can personnel know how to contain the item?

If you want to know more about effective expungement, there’s an excellent guide out there for you.”

Various containment/liminal fiction communities will have varying approaches to redaction, but they all abide by these general guidelines.^[4]https://backrooms.fandom.com/wiki/Backrooms_Wiki:Level_Creation^[5]http://rpcauthority.wikidot.com/writers-guide, “Redaction”^[6]http://ci-wiki.wikidot.com/personnel-designations, “Gamma”

Examples

SCP

Many of the SCP examples are taken from MalyceGraves’ SCP Wiki guide on redaction.

• SCP-579 (“[DATA EXPUNGED]”) is an early SCP that uses gratuitous redaction and expungement, omitting even the entire object description.
• SCP-087 (“The Stairwell”) is an early SCP that uses expungement skilfully to leave the reader with a sense of anti-climax and mystery.
• CODE NAME: S. Andrew Swann (“The Database”) expunges the anomaly’s description in order to reveal it as the article’s stinger.
• SCP-1055 (“Bugsy”) uses data redaction in the description, to reveal the contents in a security collapsible.
• SCP-231 (“Special Personnel Requirements”) uses expungement to insinuate dark and disturbing themes.
• SCP-2317 (“A Door to Another World”) uses WikiDot’s tabs system to reveal increasingly sensitive data in a file, expunging important information (e.g. the object’s description), but eventually revealing this to the reader.
• SCP-835 (“Expunged Data Released”) uses redactions and offsets to present un-redacted versions of the file.
• SCP-1459-J uses it to mock the over-use of the blackbox on the site as a whole.
• SCP-3597 (“Maladroit”) uses the blackbox to suggest a linkage to a placeholder SCP article
• SCP-2231 (“A Shared Identity”) uses the blackbox to remove personally identifying data (SSN & address) of someone that exists in “real life”.
• SCP-4583 (“Worst Flu of All Time”) uses faux blackboxes to showcase the concept that the data hidden may or may not be changing based upon perceived temporal reality.
• SCP-4913 (“5-Star [REDACTED]”) is an example of typical, modern blackbox use, e.g. to hide proper names.
• SCP-5790 (“[DATA KILLED]”) , an homage to SCP-579 (“[DATA EXPUNGED]”), uses wholesale expungement of the containment procedures and description in an attempt to tell a story.
• SCP-4354 (“From The Ink Under Your Skin To Flesh”) uses expungement to remove a whole section of visually-hazardous data.
• SCP-5154 (“Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”)‘s employment of expungement, according to an official guide on the SCP Wiki, “showcases exactly how [DATA EXPUNGED] should be used.”

RPC

• RPC-365 (“Nothing’s ever gonna make me forget her”) uses custom CSS-stylized redactions.
• RPC-839 (“There’s Always a Bigger Fish”) uses heavy blackboxes and redaction as an in-universe protective measure.
• RPC-438 (“The Lethe River”) uses redaction in a routine manner, to censor geo-identifying proper names.
• RPC-945 (“Gimme gimme chicken tendies, be they crispy or from [DATA EXPUNGED]”) uses expungement in the title and routine blackboxing in the text.
• RPC-001-2 (“The Alpha & Omega”) uses redaction within a Level 5 security lock to insert drama between Global Directors, which is revealed in a subsequent offset.

Backrooms

• Level 171 features a redaction, as the word “redacted” struck-through.
• Level REDACTED (now-deleted)^[7]https://backrooms.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000000114980

Liminal Archives

• Level Cement has humorous redactions (e.g “redacterd”, “data explunged”)

— Pardon our progress —

Trivia

The SCP Wiki has officially sponsored the fullblock unicode character due to its cultural export of fictional document redaction.^[8]https://twitter.com/unicode/status/1443262505057325065?lang=en, archive^[9]https://www.reddit.com/r/SCP/comments/py1t33/the_scp_wiki_is_sponsoring_the_redacted_unicode/