Black History, Pride Month vanish from Google Calendar; backlash erupts

Google faces heavy criticism online after removing Pride Month, Black History Month and Holocaust Remembrance Day from Google Calendar, days after Donald Trump takes office

Google Calendar has made a controversial change, now displaying only public holidays and national observances. The tech giant has removed events like Pride Month, Black History Month, and Holocaust Remembrance Day, calling the previous system “unsustainable” in an email to Newsweek. The decision has sparked debate, leaving many questioning the implications of the move.

Google Calendar removes Pride month

Earlier, Google Calendar used to mark the start of Black History Month in February and Pride Month in June, which is no longer there. Among other observances, Google also removed the references to Women’s History Month in March and Indigenous Peoples Month in November.

 

This move comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to dismantle federal DEI programs when he joined office on January 20. He issued an order that he called "Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing."

 

After this order, some top US companies, including Meta, McDonalds, Walmart, Target and Google have stepped back from their DEI goals. 

What did Google say about the change?

As the news erupted, users expressed outrage over the decision by the tech giant, igniting debate over its shifting stance on diversity initiatives.

 

The Verge mentioned the stance of spokesperson Madison Cushman Veld, who defended Google and said "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."

How did netizens react?

The company received backlash as users accused it of downplaying important cultural moments. Some users even called the change "shameful" and accused Google of "capitulating to fascism." 

 

One user wrote on X, “They may be removing stuff from google calendar or other things but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist or that it isn’t important. We refuse to be erased. We will stand up and be strong together.”

 

“Google we still calling off for #Juneteenth you can take it off the calendar all you want, but you cannot and will not erase our history,” wrote another user.

 

According to GB News, Disney also removed the "Reimagine Tomorrow" DEI program, however, they began an initiative aiming to hire US military veterans.