Google deletes offensive definition for "Jew"

Neo Nazi's newest fan

Google had to repair the search results for the word "Jew" from: to "bargain with someone in a miserly or petty way" to: "a member of the people and cultural community whose traditional religion is Judaism and who trace their origins through the ancient Hebrew people of Israel to Abraham."

Can you see the difference? The first one is a disgusting anti-Semitic trope while the second one is an actual definition. Google added the "offensive" label in all capital letters to their offensive definition, and wrote that the origins were in 19th Century stereotypes "associating Jewish people with trading and moneylending."

Google had the original 'definition' up until about 1 p.m. on Tuesday using a verb to define 'Jew' and credited Oxford Languages as the source for the anti-Semitic definition. It also presented the word in various "tenses" such as "jewed" and "jewing."

Google changed the definition after online users pointed out their offensive error.

Integrity First for America Executive Director Amy Spitalnick tweeted:

"So, if you Google the word 'Jew' - this is what comes up as the definition. 'Bargain with someone in a miserly or petty way.' Seriously, @Google?" 

She added in another tweet:

"I assume Google will fix this — but the real question is how something like this could happen in the first place. At the @WhiteHouse antisemitism roundtable this month, some of us raised how tech companies allow antisemitism to run rampant. This is an almost comical example."

The new accepted cocktail conversation

Google SearchLiason responded:

"Our apologies. Google licenses definitions from third-party dictionary experts. We only display offensive definitions by default if they are the main meaning of a term. As this is not the case here, we have blocked this & passed along feedback to the partner for further review."

Google confirmed that the derogatory definition was removed from its search engine results by 1:21 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

An Anti-Defamation League (ADL) spokesperson told CBS News that "there is no excuse" for "an obviously antisemitic result" to be displayed first on Google.

"We are thankful that Google removed the offensive definition of the word Jew from its initial dictionary definition today after ADL and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported it," the spokesperson told CBS News.

It should have never happened on the first place.

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