Google has removed cultural events from its calendar app, sparking outrage among users who believe the move is politically motivated. However, the company claims it was made for apolitical reasons.
Last year, Google decided to remove hundreds of observances, including Black History Month and Women’s History Month, due to scalability concerns. The decision affected various countries’ celebrations, which the company deemed too unwieldy to maintain manually.
The move has drawn attention amid growing tensions between big tech companies and conservative critics who accuse them of bias. Google has recently eliminated diversity training programs and updated its employee training efforts after President Trump’s executive orders opposing such policies.
Google’s calendar app is used by over 500 million people, with users now only seeing observances from timeanddate.com. The company claims it will continue to promote cultural moments in other products, such as an animation on its search page for Black History Month and a YouTube playlist dedicated to the occasion.
Despite Google’s assurances, some users believe the shift is an attempt to rewrite history or appease conservative critics. However, Google maintains that its decision was based solely on scalability concerns.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/technology/google-black-history-womens-history.html