A recent comment on Google’s product support service expressed dissatisfaction with the removal of Pride Month from Google Calendar. The user stated, “I understand that The pride month has been eliminated from Google Calendar. I do not agree with this and I would like it to recover.” Another user added that other events, such as Black History Month, Indigenous Peoples’ Month, and Hispanic Heritage Month, had also been removed.
In response, Google explained that maintaining a global list of events was not “sustainable.” According to Madison Cushman Veld, a company spokesperson, Google had worked with Timeanddate to show holidays and national celebrations on Google Calendar for over a decade. However, the Calendar team had manually added cultural events from around the world, which became impossible to maintain consistently. As a result, Google decided to only show holidays and national celebrations from Timeanddate, allowing users to manually add other important moments.
Changes to Google Calendar
Google assured that these changes would not impact future ‘doodles,’ the designs that Google shows on its homepage to celebrate events and historical moments. The company’s decision to remove these events has sparked controversy, particularly in light of recent changes in the US administration.
Potential Connection to US Administration
The removal of these events from Google Calendar is not the only controversy surrounding the company. Since Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January, several changes have been made, including the end of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. The FBI has eliminated its diversity and inclusion division, and the Republican administration has signed an executive order prohibiting transgender people from serving in the army. Google, which had set hiring objectives for minorities and underrepresented groups, has since removed these objectives. The company’s director of diversity, Melonie Parker, had previously stated that Google had reached 60% of its five-year objectives, but these objectives have now disappeared.
Google has also made changes to its navigation and maps systems, announcing that the name of the Gulf of Mexico would be changed to the Gulf of America. The company has also eliminated the indigenous denomination of the highest mountain in the country, Denali, in Alaska. These changes are reflective of the company’s efforts to comply with recent US decisions and executive orders.
