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After Backlash, Google Turns Off “Newspeak” Correction Tool (For Now)

28-4-2022 < Activist Post 159 155 words
 

By Steve Watson


Google claims that it has disabled a feature within its document editor that was correcting language to make it ‘more inclusive’, but only while it refines the tool to make it work more effectively.


As we reported Monday, Google Docs was trialling ‘inclusive warnings’, which act like a language checker, suggesting that users refrain from using terms such as ‘policeman’ or ‘landlord’, because they are gendered, and words like ‘fierce’ and ‘annoyed’ for being threatening.


Critics (even ones with rainbow flags in the bio) compared the move to the Ministry of Truth from Orwell’s 1984, policing language and making sure that its Newspeak is implemented whenever necessary.




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