Google calls 'comfort woman' whore

By Oh Young-jin

Yonhap

Google described a Korean victim of Japan's sexual slavery during World War II as a "prostitute,” but the U.S. tech giant blamed an algorithm error for it.

Japanese nationalists often use such a description as part of their effort to whitewash their wartime misdeeds. There was uproar following it.

On Monday, Google's Korean language platform described the late Moon Ok-ju, a former comfort woman, as such.

Google issued a statement saying its search results may differ from actual facts but stopped short of an outright apology. The description was removed.

Nor did the tech firm provided details on how its search algorithm made such a mistake.

Moon died in 1996 after standing up for victims like her who were forced to work at Japanese military brothels. About 200,000 women, mainly from Korea, were commandeered for this outrageous military purpose.