New York Times admits it CHANGED today’s original Wordle answer for being too politically charged

Spoilers for the May 9 game ahead.

The New York Times has now admitted it changed the solution to today’s Wordle because the original answer was too politically charged after some users on Twitter that there were two possible solutions.

In a statement on its websitethe news organization admitted ‘some users may see an outdated answer that seems closely related to a major recent news event.

‘This is entirely unintentional and a coincidence – today’s original answer was loaded into Wordle last year.

‘At the New York Times Games, we take our role seriously as a place to entertain and escape, and we want Wordle to remain distinct from the news,’ it continues.

‘But because of the current Wordle technology, it can be difficult to change words that have already been loaded into the game.

‘When we discovered last week that this particular word would be featured today, we switched it for as many solvers as possible. You won’t receive the outdated version if you have refreshed your browser window.

‘But we know that some people won’t do that and, as a result, will be asked to solve the outdated puzzle.’

The change has prompted some users around the world to complain of two different solutions to the daily puzzle game, with some having to solve the original word, ‘fetus,’ while others have to solve for ‘shine.’

The change in answers comes just one week after Politico First released a leaked United States Supreme Court draft decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade, with Chief Justice John Roberts confirming its authenticity the next day.

In the opinion, Justice Samuel Alito writes: ‘Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled.

‘It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.’

Almost immediately after it was released, liberal Democrats took to Twitter to vow to fight the decision, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeting that Sen. Joe Manchin is preventing a vote on codifying abortion rights into law, while Sen. Bernie Sanders suggested ending the filibuster to get it passed.

Protests – both in favor and opposed to the draft decision – have also sprung up throughout the country, from small towns to large cities.

The ensuing chaos prompted security guards to install tall fencing around the Supreme Court on Wednesday evening as clashes grew between pro- and anti-abortion groups.

Still, the Supreme Court seems poised to enact the decision – which would eliminate a women’s Constitutional right to an abortion, as the Washington Post reported over the weekend that the five justices who signed onto the opinion stand by their votes.

Among those who support the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, and eliminate women’s Constitutional right to abortion, are Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett,

Chief Justice John Roberts, meanwhile, still seems to oppose the decision – written by Justice Alito – and is trying to get Justices Barrett and Kavanaugh to take a more incremental decision before the Supreme Court formally announces its decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case.

He has reportedly told his fellow justices in a private conference in December that he planned to uphold the state law and write an opinion that would leave both Roe and the 1992 Casey v Planned Parenthood decisions intact, but the other conservative justices were more interested in a decision that would overturn them.

And, the Washington Post reports, he is likely not going to give up on his efforts, with many who know him saying he is likely preparing his own opinion in hopes he might draw at least one of the newer conservative justices to his point of view .

If that were to happen, the Post says, it could save the Roe and Casey decisions but severely limit their protections.

In the meantime, though, Barrett and Kavanaugh are still expressing their support for the decision, which will be opposed by Roberts and the Supreme Court’s three liberal justices. It would therefore pass the Supreme Court 5 – 4.

Some Wordle fans took to Twitter to voice their confusion – one user, @yescaptain, said: ‘Hey @nytimes – WTF? My wife gets ‘shine’ and I get FETUS’.

Referring to the American spelling, another user, @ameenab2003, said: ‘Not spelled properly anyway. It has 6 letters, of course, so shouldn’t have been on the list in the first place.’

In its statement, the New York Times acknowledged that there were two different answers for Monday, but said ‘that this is a very unusual circumstance’.

But this is not the first time this has happened since the takeover – in February, the original answer for Wordle #241 was changed from ‘agora’ to ‘aroma’ because the former was deemed too obscure.

And in March, Wordle #284 was changed from ‘harry’ to ‘stove’ for the same reason. In both instances, some users were still getting the original word.

Several ‘offensive’ words from Wordle have been successfully removed, including ‘lynch’, ‘slave’ and ‘wench’, it was revealed earlier in the year.

NYT staff deemed these loaded terms that could cause offense, and therefore felt they had to go.

NYT communications director Jordan Cohen told MailOnline: ‘We are updating the word list over time to remove obscure words to keep the puzzle accessible to more people, as well as insensitive or offensive words.’

Other removed upcoming words include fiber (likely because this is the British spelling of the word, rather than the American spelling) and, rather more curiously, pupal.

NYT has also removed some offensive racist and sexual slurs from the list of acceptable guesses, BoingBoing reported, including ‘pussy’ and ‘whore’.

It’s been just over three months since the NYT acquired Wordle, the hugely popular puzzle created by Wales-born software engineer Josh Wardle.

Wardle created the game for his girlfriend Palak Shah, who loves word puzzles.

At the beginning of November, the simple game – which involves guessing a five-letter word in six tries – had only 90 players; now there are 300,000 who play it every day, the NYT has said.

Since Wordle’s takeover, fans have expressed fears that it will go behind a paywall sooner or later, like much of the NYT’s website

NYT has said it will ‘initially remain free to new and existing players’.