British Cycling apologises after censoring Welsh village name on its website
The cycling body accidentally replaced ‘Three Cocks’ with asterisks due to an overzealous filter, later correcting the listing.
Britain’s official cycling body, British Cycling, has apologised after its website wrongly censored the name of a small Welsh village on an event page.
Accidental censorship
The village of Three Cocks in Powys hosted stages one and two of a junior national road race over the August Bank Holiday weekend. For a time, the event listing read “Three*****” instead of the full name, before the error was corrected.
Race stages
Stage one was a 76km sprint circuit along rural roads around Three Cocks, while stage two featured a 10km individual time trial. Other stages took place in nearby Monmouthshire and Blaenau Gwent.
A British Cycling spokesperson said the mistake was caused by an “overly sensitive” autocorrect filter. “We apologise for this accidental censorship,” they added, promising a review of their new website systems to prevent similar issues.
This incident highlights how automated filters can sometimes override common sense, even in professional settings.
This topic was reported by BBC.
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