Owners of the Amazon Alexa – the voice-controlled household device – say the machine refuses to play Fairytale of New York due to its offensive lyrics.
Alexa will only play the Christmas classic – written in 1987 – if listeners choose to turn off the 'profanity filter' built into the device, the Sun reports.
Fairytale of New York, a festive special sung by Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan and the late British folk musician Kirsty MacColl, has frequently sparked controversy in recent years over certain lyrics in the song.
Contained in the tune is a homophobic slur, and there's also some misogynistic language in the song.
Some argue the lyrics aren't intended to be offensive, while others support playing it without the presence of the offending words.
BBC Radio 1 has opted to edit the words "f****t" and "sl*t" out of the version it plays on air, arguing that listeners may be offended by the "derogatory terms for gender and sexuality."
BBC Radio 2, meanwhile, decided to stick with the unedited version of the tune, while BBC Radio 6 is allowing listeners to choose the version they'd rather listen to.
MacGowan, the iconic pogues troubadour known for his incredible songwriting and drunken antics, has in the past defended the song's choice of words.
Speaking to Ryan Tubridy on the Late Late Show last year, he said: "There's no political correctness to it.
"I've been told it's insulting to gays. I don't understand how that works."
In a previous statement, MacGowan said the reference was never meant to be homophobic in nature.
"The word was used by the character because it fitted with the way she would speak and with her character," the statement said.
"She is not supposed to be a nice person, or even a wholesome person. She is a woman of a certain generation at a certain time in history and she is down on her luck and desperate."
“Her dialogue is as accurate as I could make it but she is not intended to offend!
"She is just supposed to be an authentic character and not all characters in songs and stories are angels or even decent and respectable, sometimes characters in songs and stories have to be evil or nasty in order to tell the story effectively."
