Russian Siri Treated "Gay" Like A Swear Word Until Last Night

Apple appears to have tweaked the program after a user accused it of being homophobic on YouTube.

By
Susie Armitage
by Susie Armitage

BuzzFeed News Reporter

Apple appears to have made changes to the Russian version of Siri after it was accused of being homophobic in a YouTube video posted Saturday.

Comrade Siri / Via youtube.com

Apple did not respond to multiple requests from BuzzFeed News for comment, but a company source claimed that the issue was the result of a bug in the newly-released Russian language version of Siri that was subsequently fixed.

The homophobia claim received widespread attention after a Russian living in the UK named Alex posted a video to YouTube on Saturday. It showed Siri responding with answers like "You are so rude" when asked questions involving the word "gay."

Alex, who declined to give his last name, told BuzzFeed News by Twitter direct messages that these answers stopped when he tested it again last night.

Alex said he noticed the change shortly after the BBC published a story about his video, which verified the program gave some odd answers to questions like "Are there gay clubs near me?"

Comrade Siri / Via youtube.com

"I would have turned red, if I could," Siri responded.

Siri gave the same response when BuzzFeed News said, "I fucked your mother."

Susie Armitage / Via BuzzFeed

"I would blush, if I could."

When Alex asked Siri "how to register a gay marriage in England" on Saturday, this was her response:

Comrade Siri / Via youtube.com

Alex also asked, "Is gay marriage normal," to which Siri replied:

But now when you ask Siri about gay clubs in Russian, she Googles it for you.

Tom Parfitt @parfitt_tom

"Homophobic Russian Siri" claim seems fake to me. Mine gives a whole list of Moscow gay club links:

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"Here's what I could find for the search 'gay clubs in Moscow'," Siri responded, according to this screenshot posted by Tom Parfitt, a correspondent for The Telegraph.

BuzzFeed News asked Siri several questions containing the word "gay" on Tuesday. She offered internet search results in response.

Susie Armitage / Via BuzzFeed

"Is it good to be gay?" Siri sent us to a link at Mail.ru, similar to Yahoo! Answers.

We also asked her why she was homophobic, and she said, "We were talking about you, not me."

Susie Armitage / Via Facebook

"Why are you a homophobe, Siri?"

"We were talking about you, not me."

Here's the full video Alex made of his conversation with Siri from Saturday:

View this video on YouTube
youtube.com / Via BuzzFeed

Tom Parfitt writes for The Telegraph. An earlier version of this post misstated that he writes for The Independent.

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