New York City was vandalized in OpenStreetMap, and as a result renamed as “Jewtropolis” in Snapchat and other applications that ultimately depend on the service for mapping.
The company called it an act of “vandalism” and said it was working with its partner Mapbox to “get this fixed immediately”.
In a statement, Snap said the defacement was “deeply offensive”.
Screenshots on social media appeared to show other apps had also been affected.
The problem with outsourcing content to third parties is that it pins your reputation to their reliability and trustworthiness. And here there appears to be a chain: Snapchat (etc) pulling data from Mapbox pulling data from OpenStreetMap pulling data from antisemitic users.
I’d been waiting for a major wikipedia page to “fall” to an organized clique on the far right without being successfully reverted to the prior editorial consensus. This incident tastes like an apéritif.