James Woods Says Google 'Loathes Christians' After Company Again Refuses to Create Easter Doodle
Actor James Woods was among those who slammed Google after the media giant refused to mark Easter for the 18th straight year with one of its "doodles," despite celebrating a variety of other holidays and figures throughout the year.
"They loathe Christians. Plain and simple," Woods wrote on Sunday as part of a Twitter conversation on Google's decision not to mark the Jesus-centered day.
Infowars editor Paul Joseph Watson had earlier tweeted: "So Google has a doodle for every obscure 'woke' person/event imaginable, but nothing for Easter?" with a screenshot of a plain Google page missing a doodle on Easter Sunday.
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"Google honors Islamic & Hindu holidays. Google honored a Communist activist who said she 'admired' Osama Bin Laden. Easter? Nothing," Watson noted on Monday, referring to activist Yuri Kochiyama.
Other voices who made note of Google's omission included veteran Navy officer Jack Posobiec, who tweeted: "Happy Easter to everyone except Google today."
Google responded to the controversy with a statement to Fox News:
"We don't have Doodles for religious holidays, in line with our current Doodle guidelines. Doodles may appear for some non-religious celebrations that have grown out of religious holidays, such as Valentine's Day, Holi's Festival of Colors, Tu B'Av and the December holiday period, but we don't include religious imagery or symbolism as part of these."
Google has faced controversy for its choices on earlier Easter Sundays. On March 31, 2013, instead of marking the Christian holiday, it dedicated a doodle to farm workers' leader Cesar Chavez's birthday.
NewsBusters pointed out that the last time Google marked Easter with a doodle was in 2000, when it featured two Easter eggs as part of its logo.
Google has also recently come under fire for its Google Home smart-audio technology, which for a time was able to provide information on major figures, such as the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Buddha and even Satan, but failed to identify who Jesus Christ is.
"I even asked Google who is David Sams? Google knew who I was, but Google did not know who Jesus was, Google did not know who Jesus Christ was, and Google did not know who God was," said T.V. producer, author and speaker David Sams in January. "It's kinda scary, it's almost like Google has taken Jesus and God out of smart audio."
Google decided to disable responses for Buddha and Muhammad as a result of the controversy.
"[Google Assistant] might not reply in cases where web content is more vulnerable to vandalism and spam," a spokesperson for Google said at the time.
"If our systems detect such circumstances, the Assistant might not reply. If similar vulnerabilities were detected for other questions — including those about other religious leaders — the Assistant also wouldn't respond. We're exploring different solutions and temporarily disabling these responses for religious figures on the Assistant."
