Google is asking the internet for ‘n-word’ suggestions

Google starts off innocently enough, with the website asking people for “any tasty ideas that start with the letter N.” There’s also a hashtag: #NameAndroidN.

Turns out, asking people for N-words is a bad idea.

Google apparently didn’t learn from Microsoft’s disaster with its AI chatbot Tay which was hacked to spew hate speech and forgot to apply a filter on the website, resulting in submissions like this:

Oh man, @google, you really didn’t think this one through. “Nazi” is also allowed! #io16 pic.twitter.com/xVNR8lCnqP

— Patrick Lucas Austin (@patbits) May 18, 2016

People also submitted other ideas, too:

So lets give Android a meaningful name, something that says what it is #NameAndroidN pic.twitter.com/MGe50yPKWH

— Jonathan Fielding (@JonthanFielding) May 19, 2016

New phone required#NameAndroidN

— SecuriTay (@SwiftOnSecurity) May 19, 2016

#NameAndroidN Namey McNameFace… oh… we can’t have that?

— Hamish Thompson (@Hamwado) May 18, 2016

There was, of course, also a thread on 4Chan, the message board notorious for trolling the internet, which has since since been deleted.

Google saved itself from a Boaty McBoatface-style disaster in that the contest isn’t a poll, rather an open-ended submission process where Google can ignore distasteful entries. Still, it’s another lesson for brands tempted to believe that the internet is even remotely capable of acting civilized.