The New York Times removed the word “fetus” from its Wordle responses to keep the game “separate from the news,” a move apparently related to last week’s Supreme Court ruling in Rowe v. Wade.
The change caused confusion, as it was applied only to some of the players in the game.
“Today, some users may see an outdated answer to Wordle that seems closely related to a major recent news event. It’s a completely unintentional coincidence – today’s original answer was uploaded to Wordle last year, “the New York Times said in a statement.
The list of answers to the game is pre-written and assigned a date.
“When we discovered last week that this particular word would be presented today, we considered it to be as decisive as possible,” the newspaper said.
The Times acquired Wordle earlier this year after it became a viral hit.
The abolition of the word seems to be a move by the Times to avoid the use of a politically charged term. A draft Supreme Court ruling last week backed the reversal of Rowe’s remarkable ruling against Wade, threatening abortion rights in the United States and sparking a fierce national debate.
“At the New York Times Games, we take our role as a place to have fun and escape, and we want Wordle to stay separate from the news,” the Times reported.
This is not the first time Wordle has offered different solutions.
In March, confused users tweeted their confusion by two correct Wordle answers. In this case, the solution can be either “Harry” or “stove”. In this case, the Times confirmed that the answer had been changed because it removed potentially vague or insensitive words “in an attempt to make the puzzle more accessible”.
When the Times acquired Wordle, it also removed words such as “lynching,” “slave,” and “girl.”
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