Google Maps has taken down a map that documented the locations of thousands of trans healthcare providers and other LGBTQ+ resources. The map, which was created by the so-called Gender Mapping Project, sparked fears that it could be used to target providers and patients, especially now that such threats of violence have escalated in recent months.
As of Friday afternoon, the map, which was created using the Google Maps’ My Maps feature that allows users to create custom maps, was no longer publicly available. The map has been available since at least February 2021, according to Salon, but saw further publicity this week after Harvard instructor Alejandra Caraballo tweeted about the map, sparking media attention. When visiting the link that once led to the so-called Gender Map, an error message is displayed, reading “This map is no longer available due to a violation of our Terms of Service and/or policies.”
A Google spokesperson told Them on Friday afternoon that after reviewing the map, the company “found it to be in violation of our policies and have removed it from My Maps.”
“We have clear policies that prohibit the use of My Maps for harassment, and when we find content and determine that it violates these policies, we remove it,” the spokesperson said. “We will continue to apply these policies to maps created by our community.”
Those policies include prohibiting content that “threatens serious physical injury or death, or rally support to physically harm others.” The map may have also served as a potentially helpful resource for trans people seeking care — in fact, the Daily Dot reported on Tuesday that trans activist Erin Reed was able to file a copyright claim against the map to take it down temporarily, since the map allegedly copied Reed’s own informed consent map.
