Google defends removing Pride, Black History month from Calendar app

Google

Google is under fire for quietly removing events like Pride Month and Black History Month from its Calendar app. The company recently addressed the backlash in a blog post, saying the change wasn’t new and was made in mid-2024 to simplify things but it was spotted by The Verge pretty recently. Notably, major tech companies like Meta, Amazon among others have scaled back their DEI or Diversity programs ever since Donald Trump came into power.

In a blog post, Google explained that it used to manually add cultural celebrations, teachers’ days, and other moments worldwide. But after complaints that many events and countries were still missing, it decided to scale back. “It just wasn’t feasible to put hundreds of moments in everyone’s calendars,” the post read. Instead, Google now only includes public holidays and national observances from timeanddate.com.

Google insists it’s still celebrating these cultural moments across its products. “As you saw in the last few weeks with Black History Month and Lunar New Year,” the blog post noted. But that hasn’t stopped the backlash. Many feel that taking these events off the calendar sends the wrong message, even if users can manually add them back.

Almost a week ago, Google’s HR chief, Fiona Cicconi, announced that the company will no longer set specific hiring targets for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). She cited Google’s role as a federal contractor, along with recent US court rulings and executive orders, as reasons for the shift.