American reporter calls the White House and is surprised to find "calling Epstein Island"…

U.S. media reporter used a Google Pixel phone to call the White House; the screen showed the text “Epstein Island,” and Google responded

According to a report by the U.S. newspaper The Washington Post, on March 26 the media reporter used a Pixel smartphone from Google to call the White House, and the phone screen displayed “Calling Epstein Island.” The story sparked controversy. A Google spokesperson responded, saying that it is related to “false edits.”

The Washington Post said the reporter wanted to ask questions about an event at the White House earlier, so he called the White House’s phone number. But when the call rang, the name associated with that number shown on the screen was “Epstein Island.”

The Washington Post reported that when the reporter used a Pixel phone to call the White House on the 26th, the phone screen displayed the text “Epstein Island” (left photo). On the 27th, when he called, this did not happen (right photo). Photo source: accompanying image in The Washington Post report

“Nothing was wrong with the phone number.” The Washington Post said that some media reporters who tried using Pixel phones running the Android system to call the White House saw the same wording on the screen, but this did not happen when they used an iPhone.

The report said it is still unclear how long the name “Epstein Island” has been associated with the White House number, and it is also unclear how many callers may have run into such a situation.

The Washington Post then asked Google about the matter. Its spokesperson said the company found “false edits” in the Google Maps listing associated with that phone number; these contents were “briefly” captured by some phone call identification features on some devices. Google has now removed the edited content. The spokesperson also said that this practice violates Google’s rules, and the user responsible has been banned from further editing of the related content.

An anonymous official at the White House said on the 27th that the display issue described above is not related to White House systems. The Washington Post added that on the 27th, when using a Pixel phone to call the White House, the phone screen showed only the phone number and did not display the related name.

Recently, the case involving the late U.S. businessman Epstein has continued to draw attention. In July 2019, Epstein was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic and sexually abuse underage girls. Later that same year, in August, he died in a prison in New York. Epstein had extensive social connections with powerful figures and celebrities across U.S. political and business circles. He even bought a private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands and there organized large-scale sexual trafficking involving minors. Once the related scandal came to light, it caused an uproar.

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Source: Global Network / Zhang Jiangping

Editor: Wang Dan

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