Google apologizes over anti-gay slurs in translation service

Google has apologised after its translation service replaced the word gay with poof and faggot.

The problem was highlighted by campaign group All Out which launched a petition requesting that the search engine use neutral language instead.

In a statement to All Out, Google said: ‘As soon as we were informed…we immediately worked to fix the issue. We apologize for any offense this has caused people.'

All Out said: ‘We won! Thanks to our mobilization, Google implemented a fix on Friday to take out anti-gay slurs from its translation tool.'

According to All out, the worst translations occured when converting English into Spanish, French, or Portugese.

It offered synonyms for homosexual, gay and lesbian as faggot, poof, fairy and dyke.

Previously Google has a good record on equality and has pulled games from its Google Play Store because they are homophobic.

All Out added: ‘This isn't just about political correctness gone mad. Degrading language feeds negative attitudes and stereotypes. And anti-gay slurs can lead to bullying and attacks on lesbian, gay, bi and trans people.'

Some of the translations before Google fixed the problem