Search engine giant Google has been swept up in the controversy surrounding Margaret Court, with the apparent retitling of the arena under the tennis veteran’s name.
A search for “Margaret Court Arena” on Google Maps showed up as “Evonne Goolagong Arena” instead on Thursday afternoon.
However, when the icon of the location is clicked on, the title changes back to Margaret Court Arena.
There have been calls for the arena to be renamed following Court’s controversial remarks about same-sex marriage and LGBT+ people.
Source: SBS News
Source: SBS News
The 24-time Grand Slam champion, who now heads her own church, has said tennis was “full of lesbians” and transgender children were the work of “the devil”.
A petition to have the court renamed to Evonne Goolagong Arena has garnered more than 9000 supporters.
“We think it is unsuitable for your arena to continue to be named in honour of someone who has been consistently outspoken about her opposition to equality, diversity and inclusion,” the petition reads.
Tennis star Martina Navratilova has also backed the renaming.
“I think the Evonne Goolagong Arena has a great ring to it,” she wrote in an opinion piece on Fairfax Media.
“Now there is a person we can all celebrate.”
Google said the name change was generated by a user and it had since fixed it.
The company added that overall users, third-party providers and public sources often made positive contributions.
"Unfortunately there are some users that inaccurately label info, but we're continually improving our algorithms to prevent this from happening," a spokeswoman told SBS World News.
"We also made tools available for users who spot an error or missing place. They can let us know when something is incorrect through the “Report a Problem” tool, found at the bottom right corner of the map."
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