Google search results imply only men commit domestic violence, company says it's fixing

Google has returned sex-based search results for a query about spouses yelling, suggesting that only men can commit domestic violence, going back at least five months, telling Just the News on Monday night the "hotline box" response is "absolutely not designed to show up differently based on gender."

Users shared screenshots of the different responses this weekend, which Just the News confirmed were still displaying at about 4 p.m. Eastern Monday. The search for "why is my husband yelling at me" returned a domestic violence hotline, while the "wife" version of the query excerpted a page that speculates a wife yelling is a response to "feeling unheard" among other legitimate concerns.

The discrepancy between the results for husband and wife has been flagged by X users as far back as April, however, drawing notice occasionally this spring and summer.

A Google spokesperson told Just the News at about 9 p.m. Eastern on Monday the hotline box is supposed to show up "when someone’s search terms indicate they may need domestic violence support. In this case, the feature is showing up more frequently than intended, so we’re looking at improvements we can make."

Searches for "yelling" by the sex of the spouse both returned the domestic violence hotline when Just the News tried again Tuesday morning.