Searching a racial slur locates White House on Google Maps
Google Maps seems to be victim to another internet “prank’’ involving the White House— this time it’s racist. The Huffington Post first reported Tuesday that searching “[N-word] House’’ on Google Maps was bringing some users to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C..
Racially charged comments about President Obama aren’t hard to find on the internet, but this unsettling search result seems to be a new low. The Washington Post tested out even more racist search terms after the story broke, and found that multiple racial epithets directed users to the White House. The app even automatically zoomed in and focused on the building and its grounds.
According to The Huffington Post, one man who last month created a custom White House location called “Edwards Snow Den’’—meant to put NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden “in the White House’’—provided hackers with instructions to create listings.
But it seems, until yesterday, it wasn’t that hard to create a racist Google Maps location. Google Map Maker’s support page provided step-by-step instructions.
The Washington Post reported that Google disabled Map Maker in the wake of the reports. “Some inappropriate results are surfacing in Google Maps that should not be, and we apologize for any offense this may have caused,’’ Google executives said. “Our teams are working to fix this issue quickly.’’
The search term was first brought to light by Howard University alumni in D.C., according to The Huffington Post. While the original report said that the search result varied by location, searching “N-word House’’ directed Boston users to the White House as of Wednesday morning.
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