Google was working to fix its Google Maps product Tuesday after social media users noted that certain searches for the N-word pointed to the White House.
The search results were first flagged by The Huffington Post after Twitter user Bomani Buckhalter posted a screenshot:
The Current World We Live In pic.twitter.com/nszfSmA5Hc
— Bomani X (@AceBoonCoon) May 19, 2015
Typing “nigga house” or “nigger house” into the Google Maps search bar took users to the White House, according to The Huffington Post. The Washington Post pointed out that “nigger king” led to the same result. Google Maps search results vary by location, but TPM confirmed on Wednesday morning that all three searches still referred users to the White House.
An unidentified Google spokesperson told The Huffington Post that the company was working to fix the issue.
“Some inappropriate results are surfacing in Google Maps that should not be, and we apologise for any offence this may have caused,” the spokesperson said.
The Washington Post pointed out that the White House has been pranked on Google Maps before: last month, someone added a listing for a snowboard shop inside the White House named “Edwards Snow Den.”
Before the N-word search results started to circulate on social media, a Google product manager posted a notice stating that user edits to Google Maps would be suspended indefinitely beginning on May 12.
“As some of you know already, we have been experiencing escalated attacks to spam Google Maps over the past few months,” Pavithra Kanakarajan wrote. “The most recent incident was particularly troubling and unfortunate – a strong user in our community chose to go and create a large scale prank on the Map. As a consequence, we suspended auto-approval and user moderation across the globe, till we figured out ways to add more intelligent mechanisms to prevent such incidents.”
