Google Apologizes For ‘Accidentally’ Calling Gay People “Poofs,” “Pansies,” And “Homosexualists”
Google is in trouble with the gays again. This time for offering offensive suggestions for the word “gay” on its translation tool.
Google Translate works sort of like a thesaurus. A person types in a word and the software pulls up suggested translations for that word. It’s a handy little tool, especially for high school students struggling with their French homework.
However, a number of users noticed that the software gives a number of offensive homophobic terms when trying to translate the word “gay.” Some of the terms include poof, queen, faggot, and fag, as well as fairy, queen, sodomite, pansy boy, and homosexualist. (I couldn’t help but chuckle at that last one. Sorta like those who use the term ‘gayism’)
Naturally, an online petition was created demanding Google remove all antigay words from its Google Translate software. So far, the petition has garnered more than 50,000 signatures from homosexualists and their allies.
Of course, this isn’t the first time Google has been in hot water with homosexualists. Last November, a lesbian couple was shocked to learn Google Maps listed the name of their street as “faggots live here.” A week after that, a game that encouraged users to violently murder homosexualist men was briefly uploaded to the Google Play app store.
A spokesperson for the tech giant apologized for the most recent mishap, saying: “As soon as we were informed that some of our translations for certain terms were serving inappropriate results, we immediately began working to fix the issue.”
“Our systems produce translations automatically based on existing translations on the web, so we appreciate when users point out issues such as this,” the spokesperson continues. “We apologize for any offense this has caused people.”
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25 Comments
lluvmua
February 03, 07:06Yeah right * rolls eyes*
#TeamKizito
February 03, 07:26Ok.
Absalom
February 03, 07:41I like the sound of “poof”. Magical.
Poof!
Mitch
February 03, 07:41Indeed! Nonsense and ingredients!
****rolls eyes from Lagos to London****
A-non
February 03, 07:45I do believe it’s a honest mistake as I am aware that Google is quite LGBT friendly with some kind of LGBT association within the tech company.
A-non
February 03, 07:46Dennis, have you seen my mail?
Dennis Macauley
February 03, 08:35I replied all emails, no?
A-non
February 03, 08:46No Dennis, I didn’t get your reply.
Dennis Macauley
February 03, 09:52Do resend the mail.I did not get it
Chizzie
February 03, 08:29Sodomite sounds glam and vintage..
MacArdry
February 03, 09:36Catamite too.
Dennis Macauley
February 03, 08:36My colleague uses that homosexualists oh! He has a masters degree from FUTO!
pinkpanthertb
February 03, 08:44FUTO?! *facepalm* Oh gawd!
Max
February 03, 10:35U just hurt PP
Brian Collins
February 03, 23:47and me too definitely. I have mentioned it here before, we are ‘calculaters’ and not ‘englisharians’.
PP i see you o.
JArch
February 03, 09:06This is definitely unintended, as google is one of the few companies that ensures its working environment is very gay friendly and secondly the translator works with an algorithm that picks up new words each day. Google can’t monitor the words the algorithm picks up manually. It can only edit its source code to remove certain words from the translation software.
KyrxxX
February 03, 09:33Oya, apologies accepted! Be better shildren next time.
But that poof word eh, sounds magical just like Absalom said but it is also a coded word for our kind of environ.
I am POOF! R U?
MacArdry
February 03, 09:48The right term is Poofter,I believe
Mercury
February 03, 11:07Really, poof the fairy baby in fairly odd parents….. Guess poof is nice.
Ace
February 03, 14:36EHehehe yeah
Max
February 03, 10:39For starters Google didn’t put up those words there.. When you search for something, its transcoded into machine language that the computer can understand.. Its all about algorithm.. They can’t control where the search engine points people without changing the entire source code..
People should stop bickering pls.. They should also write a petition to remove the words from the dictionary. Those are dictionary words and google translator was just doing its job..
Lord II
February 03, 12:42Word Max word! However homosexualists?????? So local!
Gad
February 03, 13:36How I wish I can have at least 3 or 4 extra hours added to my 24hrs daily so I can have time to sign some kind petitions. Seriousness
Ace
February 03, 14:40I cringe at the word “homosexualist” but hey! Google shouldn’t take the fall for what people search for regularly. It is like requesting the word “Nigga” to be taken off Google and blaming them for being racist.
Lord II
February 03, 16:08Too true Ace!