Google Calendar has eliminated cultural celebrations like Black Historical past Month, Ladies’s Historical past Month and Satisfaction Month as President Trump cracks down on variety, fairness and inclusion insurance policies.
The calendar has additionally erased Indigenous Individuals Month, Jewish Heritage Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day and Hispanic Heritage Month from its pages, as earlier reported by The Verge.
Google customers attacked the calendar modifications, and accused the tech firm of attempting to curry favor with Trump.
“Calendar used to capitulate to fascism,” one person wrote on Google’s Calendar Assist web page. “This is shameful. Reinstate these calendar dates!!!”
“These bootlickers have immediately shown us who they are,” one other person wrote on the assistance web page. “I thought I was the only one who noticed! Let’s spread the word! Google are Nazi sympathizers.”
Google Calendar customers seemingly observed the modifications earlier this month, once they began posting feedback on the web site’s assist web page.
Google stated it eliminated the vacations final yr when it “standardized” its calendars to solely embody public holidays and nationwide observances as categorized by timeanddate.com, in line with statements posted on the assistance web page by Google product specialists.
“Some years ago, the Calendar team started manually adding a broader set of cultural moments in a wide number of countries around the world,” a Google spokesperson informed The Put up in an announcement.
“We got feedback that some other events and countries were missing — and maintaining hundreds of moments manually and consistently globally wasn’t scalable or sustainable,” the spokesperson added.
Those that want to embody extra holidays can subscribe to a third-party calendar, import calendar occasions or create their very own occasions, Google stated.
Timeanddate.com didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Over the previous few years, main US firms have been backtracking on their variety insurance policies, a development that has solely sped up since Trump took workplace and signed an government order banning DEI packages throughout the federal stage.
Tech corporations have fallen in line.
Google earlier this month killed its variety hiring targets, and stated it was reviewing current court docket selections and Trump’s government orders aimed toward curbing DEI.
Google has proven a newfound allegiance to Trump’s insurance policies throughout his second time period, with chief government Sundar Pichai attending the president’s inauguration alongside different influential tech executives like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos.
On Monday, Google formally switched the “Gulf of Mexico” to the “Gulf of America” on its Maps app. Trump’s most popular title will solely be seen for these looking out within the US.
The corporate stated it’s going to additionally revert again to utilizing Mount McKinley, not Denali, for the mountain in Alaska per Trump’s government order.
