This week, the virus’s Instagram post said that Apple removed International Women’s Day (March 8) from its calendar, but that’s not very correct.
Sex toy brand Bellesa posted on March 4: “Apple quietly removed International Women’s Day from the calendar. It’s weird.” The Carousel’s post continued to explain how to add it to its own Apple calendar. According to the IWD website, International Women’s Day was first observed in 1911 and is now run by various groups around the world. It is located in Women’s History Month and is a day to celebrate women’s achievements and advocate for their rights.
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The post had over 41,000 likes at the time of publication, after deleting Google Calendar about three weeks ago, after Google Calendar removed Black History Month, Pride Month and more holidays. The tech giant said it was due to only including public holidays and national commemorations, but the evacuation drew public outrage as their timing was consistent with the anti-diversity push driven by Donald Trump’s second presidency.
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Since re-taking office in January, Trump has overseen the LGBTQ White House page and the language about queer and trans people on other government websites, as part of the overall crusade to end diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) program. Tech companies have begun to comply with this, such as Meta and Google removing their DEI plans. (Apple shareholders recently voted to retain their policy.)
Given the opposition push, it’s easy for commentators to believe that Apple has taken the move. But according to Politifact, this is not the case, because Apple obviously never had International Women’s Day on its calendar in the first place. Apple told Politifact that neither International Women’s Day nor Women’s History Month appeared on the Apple calendar.
Mashable has reached out to Apple and Bellesa and will update this story if we hear back.
