Google apologises for racist 'n*gga house' search that takes users to White House
'Nigger house' and 'nigger king' searches both take users to home of Barack Obama — and two days after it was noticed, the vandalism is still showing
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Google has apologised for offence caused by vandalism of its Maps tools that meant that users searching for racist terms are being sent White House.
In what appears to be a result of Google bombing — where vandals flood a certain keyword with links to a place, meaning that the two will become associated in Google's results — users forced searches for "nigger house" and "nigger king" to redirect to the White House.
The search still has the same results, at least two days after it was first noticed.
The company said that it apologised for "any offence this may have caused". Its teams are working to fix the problem, it said, and Google itself does not appear to have had any role in adding the racist searches.
Google's mapping tools pick through the huge amounts of search data that it has to help ensure that results are up to date. But by intentionally confusing that system, users can add their own results.
Users can also set up businesses and then change the address so that they will show up wherever they want. It's unclear whether either of those workarounds were used to plant the White House results, or whether it was done using other means.
The racist results were just the latest in a run of pranks and vandalism that have hit Google's user generated mapping system. Earlier this month, the company had to shut it off its Map Maker system, which allowed users to edit its database, after someone used it to draw a giant urinating Android.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments