President Barak Obama received an onslaught of racist tweets almost immediately after joining Twitter this week. To add insult to injury, some Google Maps users are reporting that doing a search of a very offensive racial epithet points them directly to the White House.
Huffington Post, Washington Post and other media reported that a quick search of maps using the N-word and other similar variations on the term takes the user to the White House.
Similar search results could be seen as late as Wednesday morning.
Some users report the search takes them to other locations, including Disney World and historically black colleges and universities like Howard University and Morehouse College.
Google acknowledged the unfortunate search results to Washington Post on Tuesday.
"Some inappropriate results are surfacing in Google Maps that should not be, and we apologize for any offense this may have caused," a Google spokesperson said. "Our teams are working to fix this issue quickly."
Google maps use a crowd-editing system, where users can edit details about maps and searches. Google says it will suspend the crowd-editing function until a more “robust” editing system can be developed.
"We are temporarily disabling editing on Map Maker starting today, while we continue to work towards making the moderation system more robust," wrote Pavithra Kanakarajan, Google Maps product manager.
Users can still report problems with maps. An update on editing maps is expected May 27.
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