Thursday, May 21, 2015

PHOTO: Outrage after Google Maps search for *N!GGER House' directs users to the White House


Google was forced to suspend its Map Maker editing tool this month after users started abusing the service by adding what many considered to be amusing images.

But the latest addition has caused outrage after racist search terms started directing users to The White House.

It is believed a label was added to the Washington address for the.....
term 'n***a house' or 'n****r house' using the service - but this has not been confirmed and it is not known how long the label has been live.

It will also happen when searching for 'n****r house' and 'n****r king' - but these only zoom in automatically to the White House if the map is already centred in or around Washington.

The offensive label was first spotted by The Washington Post. 

The problems with Map Maker began when fan site Cult of Android spotted an image of a large Android urinating on an Apple logo at coordinates 33°30'52.5"N 73°03'33.2"E.

These co-ordinates cover a mountainous region near the city of Shahpur in Pakistan.

Shortly after its discovery, the image went viral and other eagle-eyed Maps users began searching for similar additions.

Google's Map Maker lets any user add and update map information for millions of people to see in Google Maps and Google Earth.

It was set up to make Google Maps as accurate as possible by adding details from people who actually live in the area.

Before it was suspended, edits could be made in more than 200 countries and are designed to show businesses, addresses, roads, railways, and paths as well as natural or political features - not necessarily drawings such as the urinating Android.

These additions are meant to be moderated and reviewed, but it appears this latest edits were missed.

Share your thoughts.....thanks!

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