- Google’s changes in its calendar to remove the beginning of the month of pride and the history of blacks have sparked an online debate.
- Google said that “the maintenance of hundreds of moments” has become unbearable and that changes started in mid-201.
- Since Trump’s victory, Google has updated Google Maps in the United States to say “Gulf of America” and has ended the hiring objectives.
Certain silent changes from Google Calendar have aroused a strong response while cultural wars take place in real time online.
Google has removed cultural observances, including pride day, the month of women’s history, the month of black history, the day of the Holocaust memory, the month of the Jewish heritage and the month of Aboriginal peoples, among other celebration events, the Google calendar.
While people have heard of change, which, according to Google, started in mid-2014, some went to social networks and internet forums to weigh, some criticizing and others praising this decision.
Some X users have called change as “anti-dei”. Another said that pride and the month of black history would continue to be celebrated regardless of product changes.
“It is not because the calendars are modified that we must do it,” wrote user X.
Others have applauded Google’s decision. Conservative activist Robby Starbuck, who led campaigns against what he described as “woke up policies” in companies like Walmart, reacted to change with an emoji of fire. Others have taken the moment to thank Google.
Friday, Google Calendar’s moves were reported by The Verge after online users began to highlight the change.
A Google spokesperson told Business Insider that “a few years ago”, his calendar team began to manually add “a wider set of cultural moments in a large number of countries in the world”.
“We have obtained comments that certain other events and countries lacked – and maintain hundreds of moments manually and consistent in the world was not scalable or sustainable,” said Google spokesperson.
The spokesperson said that in mid-2024, Google Calendar had started to show only public holidays and national observances of the Timeandaddate.com. Google said users can still add “important moments” to their personal calendars by personalizing the holidays they show or subscribe.
Timeanddate.com did not respond to a request for comments from Business Insider.
While the removal of pride and the month of the history of blacks by default on Google Calendar seems to generate some of the strongest reactions of users through the political spectrum, Google has also deleted other celebration events, including teachers’ day.
The online speech on the Google calendar follows other modifications made by Google more recently since the inauguration of Trump. Google Maps renamed the Gulf of Mexico on Monday at the Gulf of America for American users, following a decree that Trump issued in January.
The company has also recently put an end to the hiring objectives linked to diversity. In a memo sent last week, Google said it would no longer pursue hiring objectives linked to the performance. The company also said that it would examine its Dei programs and initiatives.
“As a federal entrepreneur, our teams also assess the changes required as a result of judicial decisions and recent decrees on this subject,” Google spokesperson said in a BI statement on the DEI policies of the giant of Research.
Other companies, such as Meta, have made similar political changes since Trump’s re -election. In January, Meta announced that it would make its diversity programs go back and no longer have a team focused on Dei. The social media society has also changed its content moderation directives and replaced the verifications of the facts by community notes.
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