theguardian.com
Google Removes Diversity Holidays from Calendars
Google's online and mobile calendars will no longer automatically include Black History Month, Women's History Month, and LGBTQ+ holidays starting in 2025, a change Google says is due to the unsustainability of manually maintaining hundreds of global events, following a recent rollback of DEI initiatives and other changes aligned with recent executive orders.
- How does Google's calendar change relate to other recent policy shifts at the company, and what broader trends might it reflect?
- The removal of these events from Google Calendars is connected to broader changes at Google, including a reversal of its DEI commitments and name changes to geographic locations reflecting executive orders. This suggests a potential shift in Google's priorities and public image, moving away from celebrating diversity-related events.
- What is the immediate impact of Google's decision to remove Black History Month, Women's History Month, and LGBTQ+ holidays from its calendar products?
- Google has stopped automatically including Black History Month, Women's History Month, and LGBTQ+ holidays in its calendar products, citing that manually maintaining hundreds of global events was unsustainable. This change affects both online and mobile calendars, requiring users to manually add these events. The decision follows Google's rollback of DEI initiatives and other changes aligned with recent executive orders.
- What are the potential long-term consequences of Google's decision on user perceptions, community engagement, and the visibility of these historically marginalized groups' observances?
- This decision by Google could have long-term implications for how users perceive the company's social responsibility and its relationship with diverse communities. The need for users to manually add these significant dates underscores a perceived downplaying of their importance by the platform, potentially impacting awareness and community engagement around these events.
Cognitive Concepts
Framing Bias
The headline and introduction immediately link Google's decision to the Trump presidency and subsequent rollback of DEI initiatives. This framing prioritizes a political narrative and potentially overshadows other potential factors. The inclusion of Google's statement late in the article minimizes its potential counter-narrative and emphasizes the negative reactions from social media.
Language Bias
The article uses charged language such as "growing list of changes," "rollback of its previous commitment," and "disappointment and frustration." These terms carry negative connotations and could be replaced with more neutral alternatives such as "recent changes," "revision of its previous policy," and "reactions from users.
Bias by Omission
The article omits discussion of Google's potential motivations beyond the stated 'unsustainability' of manually adding events. It doesn't explore alternative solutions, such as automated event inclusion or partnerships with organizations that track these observances. The omission of Google's internal discussions and decision-making processes around this change limits a complete understanding of the situation.
False Dichotomy
The article presents a false dichotomy by framing the choice as between manually adding hundreds of events versus only including public holidays. It doesn't consider alternative approaches that could reconcile the inclusion of important cultural events with scalability concerns.
Gender Bias
The article mentions Women's History Month alongside Black History Month and LGBTQ+ holidays, ensuring relatively balanced representation of marginalized groups in this context. The gender of the Google spokesperson is mentioned, which is not necessarily relevant to the topic and could be omitted for neutrality.
Sustainable Development Goals
The removal of Women's History Month from Google calendars directly undermines efforts to promote gender equality. By reducing visibility of this important event, Google diminishes awareness and celebration of women's achievements and contributions, potentially hindering progress towards gender equality.