Racist search terms in Google Maps send users to the White House

**WARNING: This article contains language that may offend some readers. Discretion is advised.**

UPDATE (May 21): Google has removed the racist search results from Google Maps.

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TORONTO – Google Maps has been hit with yet another act of vandalism, this time attacking the President of the United States. A search for the term “n—a house” in Google Maps shows the location of the White House.

According to user reports, searches for the racial slur and the word “king” also bring users to the home of the President.

In a statement to Global News, Google apologized for the inappropriate search results and said it was working to fix the issue quickly.

“Some inappropriate results are surfacing in Google Maps that should not be, and we apologize for any offense this may have caused. Our teams are working to fix this issue quickly,” said a Google spokesperson.

The racist search results had not been fixed at time of publishing.

Google has had many issues with vandalism in Google Maps over the last few months.

In April, someone listed a fake business, using the guise of a snowboard shop, called “Edwards Snow Den” and listed the address as 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, District of Columbia 20500 – otherwise known as the White House.

In that incident Google said the person who made the listing altered the business description once it was live in Google Maps.

READ MORE: Google Maps hack lands Edward Snowden in the middle of the White House

“In this particular instance, the user gamed the system by altering a business description once it was already live on Google Maps. The vast majority of the edits people make to business listings have improved the quality and accuracy of Google Maps, but we occasionally run across inaccurate edits or contributions,” the spokesperson told Global News at the time.

“We work hard to block bad actors and remove listings that violate our policies and we will continue to improve our processes to prevent future instances like this one.”

Later that month, an image of Google’s Android robot peeing on the Apple logo, shaded in parklands, was discovered on Google Maps about 30 kilometers south of Islamabad.

Last week Google shut down its Map Maker tool – which allows anyone to make changes to certain locations in Google Maps – following various acts of vandalism. According to a statement from the Map Maker team, Google is working “towards making the moderation system more robust.”

READ MORE: Google temporarily shuts down Map Maker following peeing Android incident

When asked whether or not Map Maker would be brought back online following these acts of vandalism a Google spokesperson told Global News, “We’ve been exploring how we can improve our systems to help prevent future issues and we hope to turn Map Maker back on as quickly as possible.”

It’s unclear how the racist search results were created. Map Maker is still offline and users are not able to access the tool.

A Google spokesperson did not comment on how the inappropriate search results were created.