TAIPEI (Taiwan News) —Google pledged to improve on Monday (Sept. 23) after the names of several Taiwan schools were altered by unknown actors who continued to change the names to spoofed versions once they were corrected.
Among the changes, two schools in Yunlin were labeled as prisons, a school in Taoyuan was marked as a motel, and a high school in Changhua was given a transphobic slur. In response to the cyber-graffiti, Googletold CNA that it has taken steps to prevent further abuse and is removing labels that violate its content policies.
Google did not provide a timeframe for the targeted schools’ names to be restored to their correct versions. Google also said users can report errors and correct them themselves.
The apparent prankster was reportedly persistent and changed the name of Yunlin County Jianguo Junior High School back to “Yunlin County Jianguo Prison” once it was corrected,per PTS. As of press time, the school's name had not been fixed.
Google’s statement came after the National Federation of Teachers Unions called on the company to correct the changes on Sunday (Sept. 22). Taiwan’s education ministry had also contacted Google for an explanation.