Google Filters Sex Words from Android

Apparently, the tech giant is very upset with people discussing sex on its Android OS. You can notice in the latest version of Android that the predictive text will fail to recognize a number of words, including “sex”, “intercourse” or “screwing”.

The experts have found an “obsessive” and “baffling” list of 1,400 words banned by Google. The list includes such words as “coitus” and other medical and anatomical terms. It seems that Google shows a surprising discomfort with sexuality, reproductive health and undergarments.

For some reason, the list also contains words “geek” and “Chromebook”, though the experts would have thought that the company would have liked the former and would want to promote the later.

The users are able to type any of these words manually, but they can’t use predictive text – so they just have to write every letter, from start to finish. The company will have a good go at trying to censor the word “condom”, for “condition” if you let it – this move would have the backing of the conservative elements of the Roman Catholic church, which is against that sort of thing. So, if you want to be able to ask your girlfriend to buy a pack of condoms whenever she gets a chance, you better go into the app’s settings menu and disable the word-blocking filter.

It is unclear why Google is up to this bizarre Victorian censorship. They won’t be able to protect kids from seeing such words – instead, they will make them type from start to finish in the first place. If the company is just trying to censor in order to make religious wing nuts in the United States happy, it will find that it is starting an ever-increasing filtering spiral that can result in it being as oppressive and autocratic as China.