In something that can only be called shameful and an embarrassment to us as a society, a Twitter user recently brought to light a disturbing problem with Google maps.
The user pointed out that when you write “bitches near me” in Google Maps, it starts automatically showing the results of schools, colleges and girls’ hostels.
There is no need to do a double take because you read it absolutely well. Check out the tweet:
Google, can you explain why this fuckin exists pic.twitter.com/w0eslFoVSz
— aesthetic potato (@AHappyChipmunk) November 25, 2018
Surprised like all of us, she tagged Google and Google Maps on Twitter, looking for an answer to the disturbing results. Meanwhile, many Twitter users tested the same search term and were surprised to see the same result. Users in distress went to Twitter to share their results from different locations across the country.
Google needs to fix this.
Not funny. @GoogleIndia pic.twitter.com/lroLJqiQQb— Prasanto K Roy (@prasanto) November 25, 2018
Google shows results and suggestions based on your searches. This is how your algorithm works and, therefore, that means that many people could have substituted the word girls with “bitches” in their previous searches.
That’s why Google replaced the word and the search results were so disturbing.
Although Google has corrected this error now, it still shows how much we are failing as a society.
This is not the first time something like this has happened. A few months ago, Shashi Tharoor had published a tweet about a similar search problem with Google that was equally disturbing.
Have a look:
That’s bizarre & disgraceful. @Google @sundarpichai can you explain — & fix? https://t.co/0MSylDtAYc
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) July 7, 2017
