Google Calendar drops Pride, Black History months; Google Maps renames Gulf of Mexico

Google has removed diverseness events similar Pride and Black History Month from its calendar app and renamed the Gulf of Mexico connected Google Maps.

On Monday, the tech elephantine announced it had followed the pb of the Geographic Names Information System and officially updated “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America” for users successful the U.S.

Those accessing Google Maps successful Mexico volition proceed to spot the oceanic basin’s archetypal name, portion radical successful different countries volition spot “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)” erstwhile visiting the company’s fashionable web-mapping platform.

Google Maps is present showing ‘Gulf of America’ for users successful the United States. (Google)

The changes successful Google Calendar, the company’s time-management and scheduling service, were highlighted by users past week, though the institution said they person been successful spot for months.

“I recognize you removed Pride period from the Google calendar,” 1 idiosyncratic wrote connected the company’s authoritative enactment leafage connected Feb. 4. “[I] disagree with this and would similar to adhd it back.”

A Google merchandise expert replied to the station adding that Pride was not the lone alteration made to the calendar.

“They removed Black History Month, Indigenous People Month [and] Hispanic Heritage,” the idiosyncratic wrote, urging chap users to “let the squad cognize you privation this back.”

On Friday, a institution spokesperson confirmed the changes to tech quality tract The Verge, saying it was no longer “scalable oregon sustainable” for the Google Calendar squad to proceed to manually adhd “a broader acceptable of taste moments successful a wide fig of countries astir the world” to the level aft doing truthful for “over a decade.”

“So successful mid-2024 we returned to showing lone nationalist holidays and nationalist observances from timeanddate.com globally, portion allowing users to manually adhd different important moments,” spokesperson Madison Cushman Veld said.

To many, however, the determination appears to beryllium portion of a increasing inclination among U.S. corporations to region themselves from diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts pursuing President Donald Trump’s enforcement bid connected “ending extremist and wasteful authorities DEI programs.”

It’s besides a motion that the institution has joined a increasing database of U.S. corporations to lukewarm up to the president’s anti-DEI agenda.

Over the weekend, Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum took to the Elon Musk-owned societal media level X to observe the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, pursuing Trump’s enforcement bid aimed astatine “restoring names that grant American greatness.”

“Another large triumph for President Trump’s agenda,” Burgum wrote.