As anyone who has used Google might already know, when you conduct a search on the site, it will suggest more searches of potential interest under a "People also ask" heading. The makeup of these "people" is not specified on the page, but clearly the point of this feature is to have you search more. In my capacity as the primary editor of Defector's lead WNBA writer, I use Google search often: to verify the spelling of names, fact-check details, and find the time and date of a team's upcoming game. At some point—I can't remember exactly when, but certainly at the start of this season—I noticed that whenever I searched a WNBA player, one of the suggested questions would invariably be "Who is the transwoman in the WNBA?"
I wasn't the only one seeing this in my search results; my colleague Maitreyi Anantharaman, whose main beat is the WNBA, told me she noticed it as well across this season. I didn't take a screenshot of every search, but below you'll find the result for Golden State Valkyries forward Gabby Williams as of last week. At the end, there's also the question, "Which WNBA player looks like a man?"
The subject of the search did not matter. A'ja Wilson, Caitlin Clark, Breanna Stewart—all these player searches would include this bizarre question. It would also show up if you searched a team, like the New York Liberty. Around 2020, guard Layshia Clarendon came out as non-binary and played on a few different teams until 2024, but there are no trans women playing in the WNBA. The "AI Overview" would indeed explain this if you clicked, but I was baffled as to why it suggested the question in the first place. Obviously, some unknown number of users out there will ask Google if any trans women play in the WNBA, but it felt quite different for the biggest search engine in the world to actively recommend the question.
To be clear, this search result predated the anti-trans comments made by Indiana Fever bench player Sophie Cunningham. Still, it wasn't difficult to imagine how the hysterical discussion around the entirely hypothetical scenario of a trans woman in the WNBA could be exacerbated by Google's promotion of it. YouTube is already full of this kind of embellished shit, so why wouldn't it be found in another pillar of the internet? Surely the biggest, most cynical bigots in the world wouldn't use it as proof that the question was worth asking, because others were asking the question.
As I understand it, the "People also ask" feature is frequently changing what it displays, and that section is based off what people are actually searching, as well as news and other articles published on the internet—albeit in the form of a question, and typically with proper spelling and punctuation. At the same time, Google has content policies to determine what appears in those search results, and uses a combination of automated filters and human reviews, taking action when something might violate policy. This part seems obvious: The ideal version of a search engine does not give you explicit results unless you specifically request them, and it will prioritize accurate, trusted information. Hypothetically, some number of people could be searching "Barack Obama Muslim," but the "People also ask" feature on the search result for "Barack Obama" would not be showing "Is Barack Obama a Muslim?" (I checked; as of writing, it does not.)
That's all common sense and basic content moderation. What remains unclear to me is how the question "Who is the transwoman in the WNBA?" ended up on virtually every WNBA player result and was not noticed for months. It seems like a significant error for a company that has not only sponsored the WNBA playoffs but is listed as a league business partner, which in 2021 committed "to help increase visibility and coverage of women's sports by developing innovative media activations, supporting content to increase representation, and enhancing Google's product experiences making them more equitable and inclusive for all."
As of Tuesday, "Who is the transwoman in the WNBA?" no longer shows up on the numerous search results I tried. Most of the players' "People also ask" sections now have more mundane follow-up questions, although Connecticut Sun center Brittney Griner, whose gender has often been needlessly questioned throughout her career, was still being transvestigated. As you can see in the screenshot below, the AI Overview didn't provide an answer on "Why does Brittney Griner look so masculine?"
When reached for comment, a Google spokesperson sent the following: "This feature reflects real-time searches, meaning suggestions change based on what people are actively looking for and the content available on the web. All suggestions are subject to our strict content guidelines, and we take appropriate action when violations are reported." The company declined to go into any specifics on the WNBA examples provided to them, or when or how they were discovered and removed.
The precise nature of the algorithmic and human decisions that led to this "People also ask" question may remain unknown, but the effect is obvious: For weeks, I and many other sports fans were unable to do something as simple as look up a player's stats without having the right wing's manufactured culture war on the WNBA shoved into my face. Now that's an innovative media activation.
