Google Calendar Drops Cultural Events, Citing Sustainability Issues

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Google Calendar Drops Cultural Events, Citing Sustainability Issues \ Newslooks \ Washington DC \ Mary Sidiqi \ Evening Edition \ Google has removed default references to cultural events like Pride Month and Black History Month from its online calendar, sparking user backlash. The company says it shifted to only displaying national holidays in mid-2024 due to scalability issues. Additionally, Google has renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America in U.S. versions of Google Maps, following a directive from President Donald Trump. The company is also scaling back diversity hiring targets, aligning with Trump’s executive order urging corporations to eliminate DEI initiatives.

Google’s Calendar and Mapping Changes: Quick Looks

Cultural Events Removed: Google Calendar no longer includes Pride Month, Black History Month, and other cultural observances by default.
Company’s Justification: Google says it stopped manually adding cultural events in mid-2024, citing scalability concerns.
Public Backlash: Users noticed missing observances, including Indigenous Peoples Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, and Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Google Maps Name Changes: Following Trump’s orders, Google renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America for U.S. users.
Denali vs. McKinley: Google has not yet updated Denali’s name back to Mt. McKinley, despite Trump’s directive.
DEI Rollbacks: Google is scaling back diversity hiring goals, aligning with Trump’s executive order targeting DEI programs.
Global vs. U.S. Differences: International Google Maps users still see original geographic names, while U.S. versions reflect Trump’s changes.
Tech Companies Under Pressure: Google joins a growing number of corporations backing away from diversity efforts due to political shifts.

Deep Look

Google has quietly removed default references to major cultural observances like Pride Month, Black History Month, Indigenous Peoples Month, and Holocaust Remembrance Day from its online calendar, sparking backlash from users who noticed the missing entries in both desktop and mobile applications. Though the change only gained public attention in recent weeks, Google confirmed that it implemented the update in mid-2024, stating that manually maintaining a global list of cultural moments was no longer sustainable.

For years, Google Calendar supplemented its national holiday listings with a selection of cultural events manually added by the company. These included awareness months, historical observances, and other non-holiday commemorations. However, in a statement to the Associated Press, Google explained that its previous system led to frequent requests for additional observances from different countries and communities. To address these concerns, the company decided to streamline its approach by exclusively displaying public holidays and national observances provided by Time and Date AS, a Norway-based data service Google has used for over a decade.

According to Google, users still have the option to manually add these cultural events to their calendars, shifting the responsibility away from the company. But critics argue that this move disproportionately affects awareness months and observances tied to historically marginalized groups, reducing public recognition of significant social, political, and historical milestones.

The removal of these observances is not the only recent change that has led to accusations that Google is backing away from diversity and inclusion efforts. In recent weeks, the company has also faced scrutiny for renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on Google Maps in the United States—a change made in response to an executive order from President Donald Trump.

Google Maps Controversy: Geographic Renaming Sparks Debate

Alongside the changes to Google Calendar, the company has also revised geographic labels on Google Maps, following directives from the Trump administration to rename key landmarks and bodies of water. Among the most significant:

The Gulf of Mexico has been renamed the Gulf of America in U.S. versions of Google Maps.
Denali, the tallest mountain in North America, was ordered to be changed back to its previous name, Mt. McKinley, though Google has not yet implemented that update.

Google defended its decision by emphasizing that it follows naming conventions set by official government sources, including the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), which maintains official records for place names in the United States. According to Google, the Gulf of America name change has already taken effect for U.S.-based users, while international users still see both names on Google Maps.

The decision has sparked outrage among historians, geographers, and Indigenous groups, who view Trump’s renaming efforts as an attempt to rewrite history for political reasons. Critics argue that Google’s willingness to comply with these changes—while simultaneously removing cultural observances from its calendar—suggests a troubling shift toward prioritizing political directives over public interest.

Google’s DEI Rollbacks: A Response to Trump’s Executive Order?

The controversy surrounding Google’s handling of Calendar and Maps updates coincides with another major shift within the company: a rollback of its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Last week, Google announced it would reassess its diversity hiring goals, following an executive order from Trump pressuring government contractors to eliminate DEI programs. As a federal contractor, Google is legally required to comply with new government regulations, prompting the company to scale back efforts aimed at increasing workplace diversity.

Google’s decision follows a broader trend among U.S. corporations, many of which have abandoned or significantly reduced DEI programs amid legal challenges and political pressure. Critics warn that these rollbacks threaten decades of progress in workplace diversity and inclusion, especially in industries like tech, where historically marginalized groups remain underrepresented.

For many observers, Google’s recent actions—removing cultural events from its calendar, renaming geographic landmarks under Trump’s directives, and scaling back DEI hiring policies—signal a broader retreat from corporate commitments to diversity and inclusion.

The Bigger Picture: Political Influence on Tech Platforms

While Google insists these changes are procedural and unrelated, the timing of these shifts raises questions about the company’s independence from political influence. The tech giant wields immense power over public access to information, making its decisions about what events and names appear on its platforms inherently political.

Some experts worry that Google’s willingness to comply with Trump’s naming orders while removing cultural observances from its calendar represents a shift toward a more conservative, government-aligned approach to content management. Others argue that these changes reflect a growing corporate tendency to avoid controversy by eliminating anything that could be perceived as politically sensitive.

Regardless of Google’s motivations, the company is now at the center of a heated debate over how technology shapes public memory, cultural awareness, and historical narratives.

What Happens Next?

Google Calendar users must manually add missing observances, shifting the responsibility from the company to individuals.
The Gulf of America renaming is now live for U.S. users, but it remains to be seen whether Google will follow through on Trump’s order to rename Denali back to Mt. McKinley.
Google’s diversity hiring rollbacks may lead to further scrutiny, particularly from civil rights groups and lawmakers advocating for workplace inclusion.
The company could face internal resistance, as Google employees have historically been vocal in challenging corporate decisions perceived as harmful to DEI initiatives.

At a time when technology plays an ever-growing role in shaping historical narratives and public awareness, Google’s actions will likely continue to fuel debates over how much power tech giants should have in deciding what cultural moments and geographic names are visible to the world.

For now, users who wish to see these missing events in their calendars or challenge geographic renaming decisions will have to take matters into their own hands—but many question whether these changes reflect a larger, more concerning pattern of political influence over digital spaces.