Google said it fixed search results for the word "Jew" after an offensive definition of the word was appearing as the top result.
Until about 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday, the leading result for the word "Jew" was a verb with a definition that read: "Bargain with someone in a miserly or petty way."
Oxford Languages was cited as the source for the definition. The search engine also presented the word in various "tenses," including "jewed" and "jewing."
The offensive definition's origin was listed being rooted in a 19th-century slur and "in reference to old stereotypes associating Jewish people with trading and moneylending," CBS News reported.
The search result also included a small-bolded banner marked "offensive" in capital letters.
Google updated the result after many online users pointed out the offensive error.
"So, if you Google the word 'Jew' – this is what comes up as the definition. 'Bargain with someone in a miserly or petty way.' Seriously, @Google?" Integrity First for America Executive Director Amy Spitalnick tweeted.
"I assume Google will fix this — but the real question is how something like this could happen in the first place. At the @WhiteHouse antisemitism roundtable this month, some of us raised how tech companies allow antisemitism to run rampant. This is an almost comical example," Spitalnick wrote in a another tweet.
Google SearchLiason tweeted a response that said: "Our apologies. Google licenses definitions from third-party dictionary experts. We only display offensive definitions by default if they are the main meaning of a term. As this is not the case here, we have blocked this & passed along feedback to the partner for further review."
Google confirmed that the derogatory definition was removed from its search engine results by 1:21 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
An Anti-Defamation League spokesperson told CBS News that "there is no excuse" for "an obviously antisemitic result" to be displayed first on Google.
"We are thankful that Google removed the offensive definition of the word Jew from its initial dictionary definition today after ADL and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported it," the spokesperson told CBS News.
A search for the word "Jew" now results in a noun that means "a member of the people and cultural community whose traditional religion is Judaism and who trace their origins through the ancient Hebrew people of Israel to Abraham."
Oxford Languages again is cited as the source of the definition.
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