TORONTO – The Internet was delighted last month after the image of an Android robot peeing on the Apple logo was discovered on Google Maps. Google, on the other hand, was not so impressed.
The tech giant temporarily disabled its Map Maker tool Tuesday, which allows anyone to make changes to certain locations in Google Maps, in light of the incident.
Last month, the image of the rebellious peeing Android robot was discovered by users.
The robot, which was shaded like parklands on Google Maps, was pictured about 30 kilometres south of Islamabad, Pakistan. It has since been removed.
Google has not clarified how long the Map Maker tool will be disabled, but confirmed the decision was due to “escalated attacks” within the tool.
READ MORE: There is an Android robot peeing on an Apple logo on Google Maps
“The most recent incident was particularly troubling and unfortunate – a strong user in our community chose to go and create a large scale prank on the Map,” said Map Maker product manager Pavithra Kanakarajan in a blog post.
According to Kanakarajan, Google first suspended its auto-approval and user moderation tool following the attack, but was forced to shut down the service altogether after a huge backlog of edits requiring manual review was created.
“Given the current state of the system, we have come to the conclusion that it is not fair to any of our users to let them continue to spend time editing,” the post continued.
“While this is a very difficult, short term decision, we think this will help us get to a better state faster. More importantly, we believe it is simply the right thing to do to all of you, our valued users who continue to edit with the hope that your changes might go live as fast as you’ve been used to.”
Comments