FACT CHECK: Did Google Create A Doodle For Ramadan But Not For Easter?
An image shared on Facebook by the page The Political Right claimed that Google created a Doodle for Ramadan but not one for Easter.
“#BoycottGOOGLE,” the caption reads.
Verdict: False
Google has a policy of not creating Doodles for strictly religious holidays. The Ramadan logo featured is not a legitimate Doodle and was instead created as part of a campaign to get Google to feature one for the holiday.
Fact Check:
The tech giant Google routinely updates its logo with a “Doodle” to reflect anniversaries, birthdays, holidays and historical events. On April 21, Easter, many people noticed there was no Doodle – just the typical Google logo.
The meme is correct on that count, however, Google has released Doodles for neither Easter nor Ramadan in recent years. It did release a Doodle for Easter in 2000, featuring two eggs in the center of the logo, but has not released such a Doodle in recent years.
Back in 2018, Google told 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.”
For Easter 2019, Google did create an interactive homepage, the first of its kind, which allowed users to explore the history of Easter traditions. The design of the page featured bunnies, flowers, candies and eggs.
The Ramadan Doodle pictured in the meme was not created by Google, but rather was created as part of an online campaign in 2010 that attempted to convince Google to feature a Doodle for the Muslim holiday. A search of the Google Doodles archives returns no such image.
Recent Google Doodles have commemorated Election Day in Finland, Teacher’s Day in Ecuador, Earth Day, Holi, St. Patrick’s Day, Kuwait National Day and more.
