Google Will Not Make April Fools' Day Jokes This Year Amidst Coronavirus Crisis, Internal Email Suggests

Google has reportedly asked its teams to cancel their plans for any April Fools' Day jokes this year, whether internal or external.

Google has a tradition of creating April Fools' Day jokes

Google will not try to fool the world with its April 1 jokes this year owing to the threat of coronavirus that has affected the lives of people around the globe. Google has been consistent in making light hearted April Fools' Day jokes in the past but according to an internal email, the company will not follow through this year. The email does, however, state that the company will save the jokes for next April which will “undoubtedly be a whole lot brighter than this one.”

The internal email was obtained by Business Insider (behind a paywall), and reported by The Verge. According to the mail, sent by Google's Chief Marketing Officer Lorraine Twohill, Google will “take the year off from that tradition out of respect for all those fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Our highest goal right now is to be helpful to people, so let's save the jokes for next April, which will undoubtedly be a whole lot brighter than this one.” It goes on to state, “We've already stopped any centralised April Fool's efforts but realize there may be smaller projects within teams that we don't know about.” Lorraine also asks the teams to cancel any jokes they might have planned both internally or externally.

Google started with this tradition of April Fools' Day jokes in 2000 and has been consistently doing so from 2005, till now.

The search giant seems to be doing what it can to prevent the spread of misinformation in these times. It is absolutely paramount that only accurate information, especially in regards to coronavirus, is disseminated. The virus, which is believed to have started in Wuhan, China, back in December, last year, has spread to every continent in the world except for Antarctica. There have been more than 638,000 confirmed cases and more than 30,000 deaths worldwide owing to COVID-19, according to the World Health Organisation.