Google still blocking the word ‘bisexual’ from autocomplete

Google is still blocking the word ‘bisexual’ from its search autocomplete feature.

According to The Advocate, despite promising to remove the word ‘bisexual’ from a list of banned words in 2012, Google still blocks it from autocomplete.

Autocomplete offers suggestions of searches based on keywords, offering suggestions of ‘gay marriage’ or ‘gay rights’ when typing in the word ‘gay’.

However, typing in ‘bisexual’ yields no suggestions, similar to most slurs and swear words, despite Google two years ago promising suggestions such as ‘bisexual rights’, ‘bisexual quotes’ and ‘bisexual parenting’.

Faith Cheltenham, president of BiNet USA, told the Advocate that Google’s failure to remove the ban “prevents countless people from accessing information about bisexuality and further perpetuates bi erasure.”

A new petition set up asking Google to remove bisexual from its list of banned words has so far attracted nearly 1500 supporters.

Jim Larsen of the Bisexual Organizing Project said on the petition: “One of the biggest issues facing bisexuals is isolation and lack of community. When the #1 search engine in the world makes it harder to find information and a community, it is terribly unfortunate.”

 Last year, Apple quickly removed ‘bisexual’ from a list of words that developers were warned not to use in the App Store.

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