MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — Following U.S. president Donald Trump’s orders to curb diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives among federal agencies, cultural events and holidays, Pride and Black History Month no longer appear on Google’s online calendars, reported The Guardian.
According to The Guardian, Google spokesperson Madison Cushman Veld provided a statement noting the now-removed cultural events and holidays were not “scalable” nor “sustainable.”
“Some years ago, the Calendar team started manually adding a broader set of cultural moments in a wide number of countries around the world. We got feedback that some other events and countries were missing – and maintaining hundreds of moments manually and consistently globally wasn’t scalable or sustainable,” stated Veld, as reported by The Guardian.
As a result, the company has returned to only displaying national holidays and observances on Google Calendar from timeanddate.com, though users can manually add their own events, according to Veld’s statement to The Guardian.
Among the holidays and observances no longer acknowledged by Google Calendar following this decision include Black History Month, Women’s History Month, LGBTQ+ holidays, and other cultural events that were formerly recognized on the company’s mobile calendars, wrote The Guardian.
Google also recently announced plans to roll back its DEI efforts within its employment policies following the start of Trump’s second presidency, reported The Guardian, adding there’s been widespread disappointment on social media with the tech company’s recent decision to retract from previously inclusive efforts.
In an email to The Guardian, Google clarified this decision would not affect Google Doodles, which has been used to celebrate and recognize these cultural events with digital artwork on their site’s homepage, nor would it impact YouTube Music, which will continue to offer a Black History Month playlist.
“Google continues to actively celebrate and promote cultural moments as a company in our products,” the tech company stated, according to The Guardian.
“Some years ago, the Calendar team started manually adding a broader set of cultural moments in a wide number of countries around the world. We got feedback that some other events and countries were missing – and maintaining hundreds of moments manually and consistently globally wasn’t scalable or sustainable,” stated Veld, as reported by The Guardian.
As a result, the company has returned to only displaying national holidays and observances on Google Calendar from timeanddate.com, though users can manually add their own events, according to Veld’s statement to The Guardian.”
That sounds perfectly reasonable.