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KamaAina

(78,249 posts)
Thu Jul 2, 2015, 12:22 PM Jul 2015

Google unit sorry for including concentration camps in game

Not The Onion!

http://www.sfgate.com/business/technology/article/Google-unit-sorry-for-including-concentration-6362732.php

A Google subsidiary has apologized for making Nazi concentration camps part of a mobile role-playing game.

Niantic Labs says players of 'Ingress' can propose historic location and monuments for inclusion in the game, in which two factions use smartphones to battle for control of these sites. The German weekly Die Zeit reported Thursday some of the sites, known as 'portals,' were located within concentration camps such as Dachau and Sachsenhausen.

Gabriele Hammermann, director of the memorial site at Dachau, told the dpa news agency that Google's actions were a humiliation for victims and relatives of the Nazi camps.

In a statement to The Associated Press, Niantic Labs' founder John Hanke said the company has begun removing the offending sites from the game. He said "we apologize that this has happened."


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Google unit sorry for including concentration camps in game (Original Post) KamaAina Jul 2015 OP
In one of the most popular games of all times. NCTraveler Jul 2015 #1
How does anyone think this is okay? merrily Jul 2015 #2
They've been apologizing a lot lately... B2G Jul 2015 #3
Boy I am glad I'm not the one that has to write picture identification algorithms. n/t PoliticAverse Jul 2015 #4
 

NCTraveler

(30,481 posts)
1. In one of the most popular games of all times.
Thu Jul 2, 2015, 12:28 PM
Jul 2015

You can pick up a prostitute, take her in an alley and "conduct business," then beat her to death and get your money back. And the concentration camp calls for an apology. The people in the country who need us most have no voice. This is a direct reflection of that. One group has a large voice and money. The other is voiceless and completely disadvantaged. One gets an apology, the other get the promise of better graphics so it will look more real after you rape and beat her.

 

B2G

(9,766 posts)
3. They've been apologizing a lot lately...
Thu Jul 2, 2015, 12:31 PM
Jul 2015

Google apologises for Photos app's racist blunder
1 July 2015

Google says it is "appalled" that its new Photos app mistakenly labelled a black couple as being "gorillas".

Its product automatically tags uploaded pictures using its own artificial intelligence software.

The error was brought to its attention by a New York-based software developer who was one of the people pictured in the photos involved.

Google was later criticised on social media because of the label's racist connotations.

"This is 100% not OK," acknowledged Google executive Yonatan Zunger after being contacted by Jacky Alcine via Twitter.

"[It was] high on my list of bugs you 'never' want to see happen."

Mr Zunger said Google had already taken steps to avoid others experiencing a similar mistake.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33347866

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