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NEW YORK — The New York Times has moved to swiftly change Monday’s answer to its daily Wordle crossword, fearing it will be seen as some sort of commentary on the abortion rights debate.
The game, which became a sensation late last year and was acquired by The Times in January, gives users the chance to guess six different five-letter words each day.
But The Times stirred things up last year when it learned that the word “fetus” was the word for Monday, which entered Wordle’s computer program.
The timing was particularly worrying given the leaked report last week of a draft decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that would repeal a 50-year-old ruling regulating women’s ability to have abortions.
The newspaper said in a message to readers on Monday that the “fetus” appearance was “completely unintentional and coincidental”.
“At The New York Times Games, we take our role as a place to have fun and escape seriously, and we want Wordle to stay separate from the news,” the message said.
The Times changed Monday’s response to a different word, and a spokesperson said the “vast majority” of users saw it. But spokesperson Jordan Cohen said some people who don’t refresh their browsers see a “fetus” instead.
He did not say whether The Times had received any complaints about the “fetus”.
Wordle was invented by Brooklyn software engineer Josh Wardle as a gift to his partner and came into being when he started posting it on the internet. Players guess words and focus on the correct answer as the game tells them if their guesses include letters in the word of the day.
The newspaper said The Times purchased his invention for more than $1 million and innovated technology to ensure every user sees the same word every day. Cohen said millions of people play with Word every day.
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