Google has deleted photos from its Street View interactive panorama that enabled users to virtually take a tour on Australia's Uluru, an Aboriginal site that has been closed to visitors since 2019, the search company said Friday.
Parks Australia requested Google remove the user-contributed photos in connection with the Anangu inhabitants of the World Heritage site. Google said it had taken down the images as soon as it was asked.
"We understand the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is very sacred to the Anangu inhabitants," BBC News quoted Google saying.
The Australian government returned full ownership to the Anangu people in 1985. Once popularly referred to as Ayers Rock, Uluru is tied to folklore about the Northern Territory's people.
Street View is a widely used Google technology that lets users travel around different types of terrains and geographical locations for a 'virtual trip' using the photos uploaded on the platform - sometimes by the company itself and by the public.
"It's an extremely important site - not a playground or theme park like Disneyland," Sammy Wilson, who headed the national park board that ordered the closure of the site to tourists, said at the time, as reported by BBC.
Climbing Uluru has been a popular tourist activity. However, the adventure was shut down last year at the wishes of the Uluru people. The Anangu consider climbing the site as disrespect to their tradition. Nearly 40 people are said to have died on the climb.
