Why photos of Winston Churchill disappeared from Google search results

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After Google received backlash online, the company aplogised over the technical glitch and the issue was later resolved. (Source: Google)

In a mysterious case, photos of Winston Churchill stopped appearing on Google search over the weekend. As many tried to look for British Prime Ministers and list of World War II leaders, images of the former UK PM were not visible on the search engine’s results.

The development left netizens baffled online, with many tagging the tech giant demanding answers. Although the company ‘fixed it’ following to outrage, people have sought a proper explaination.

As people searched with his name, a black box appeared instead of Churchill’s photo. People on social media were quick to point out that pictures of Adolf Hitler, Stalin and Mao were still displaying on the search engine

The latest episode comes after a Black Lives Matter protest in central London last weekend led to Churchill’s statue being defaced with the word “racist”.

#Churchill‘s picture has been reinstated after being blacked out by @Google.

For hours, we lived in a world where Churchill, who helped defeated Nazism, had been removed for being “racist”, while Hitler and Stalin, two of the greatest mass murderers, were visible.

Scary times! pic.twitter.com/DC3osMZs7N

— Julie Lenarz (@MsJulieLenarz) June 14, 2020

Yep, happened for me too when I searched World War II leaders. Got pictures of 53 leaders but no pic of Churchill. https://t.co/kpIKhCedHq pic.twitter.com/YD51EthxV5

— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) June 14, 2020

I just checked this out. Go to Google & ask for British Prime Ministers. Winston Churchill’s picture has been removed.

What’s going on? pic.twitter.com/rnfCw9bVhO

— Gerard Batten (@GerardBattenUK) June 14, 2020

So now Google has officially DELETED Churchill but kept Hitler and Stalin.

Let that sink in. pic.twitter.com/qn6llQpUKX

— Avi Yemini 🇦🇺🇮🇱 (@OzraeliAvi) June 14, 2020

Google has removed Churchill’s photo out of all the previous Prime Minister’s photos.

Utterly disturbing that such a company can have that power to censor our British history.

Shame on you @Google pic.twitter.com/aRC0PY93qs

— Adam Brooks (@EssexPR) June 13, 2020

Winston Churchill’s picture has been removed from the Google list of UK Prime Ministers.

This is going to far, the agenda blatant, our history is being erased before our very eyes, we need to fight back. pic.twitter.com/CALQNnh7TE

— Darren of Plymouth 🇬🇧 (@DarrenPlymouth) June 14, 2020

It shows how ridiculous our country has become that we’re even having a debate about Winston Churchill.
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He was the man who defeated Hitler and now Google have removed his picture and we’ve boarded his statue up.

What the hell is going on?!

— Rupert Lowe (@RupertLowe10) June 14, 2020

Google delete Churchill, but look who is still OK: pic.twitter.com/gzhUQfUUgb

— David Scott (@Albion_Rover) June 14, 2020

Winston Churchill, The greatest ever Briton, a war hero, the man who faced down fascism, Nazis, the greatest threat to peace the world has ever known, has had his picture removed from Google’s list of UK Prime Ministers.

Make sense yet?

Time to rise up and fight for who we are! pic.twitter.com/hUes02oOMa

— Darren of Plymouth 🇬🇧 (@DarrenPlymouth) June 14, 2020

Just to clarify: removing a photo of Winston Churchill from Google won’t end racism. pic.twitter.com/5eRxnL4Nkq

— Emily Hewertson (@emilyhewertson) June 14, 2020

Everybody tweet a photo of Churchill today. He has been deleted by Google!!🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/nNPrqK9hnp

— TheRenewALL 🚜 (@TheRenewALL) June 14, 2020

The tech company on Sunday reacted to the complaints by the users and apologised for the error. Taking to Twitter, the US-based company wrote: “This was not purposeful & will be resolved. Images in such panels are automatically created & updated. During an update, they can briefly disappear”.

In a serious of tweets, the company claimed the glitch was temporary and blamed an update for the unwanted error. “If a Knowledge Graph image is missing due to an update, the subject will be named but lack an image in anything automatically generated from the Knowledge Graph. This is why Churchill’s image (but not his name) is missing from some lists. It is temporary & will be resolved”.

If a Knowledge Graph image is missing due to an update, the subject will be named but lack an image in anything automatically generated from the Knowledge Graph. This is why Churchill’s image (but not his name) is missing from some lists. It is temporary & will be resolved….

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) June 14, 2020

As some highlighted that the search engine was showing only one-term of his reign in office, alleging the company was purposefully trying to hide his legacy, Google said, “It shows an automatically generated Knowledge Graph list. This is not specific to Churchill”.

We’re exploring why the first terms for Churchill, Wilson, MacDonald & Baldwin are not shown. It might be that our systems are only displaying the last term of prime ministers who had non-consecutive terms. We’ll seek to address this to avoid any unintentional concern….

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) June 14, 2020

While resolving the issue, the company also added, “We’ll want to explore exactly why an automatic update caused it to disappear & see if there are any improvements in those systems to address.”

We’ve now resolved the issue that was preventing the picture of Sir Winston Churchill from being updated to appear in his knowledge panel and Knowledge Graph-related lists. Again, this was not purposeful. Our apologies for the concerns caused. pic.twitter.com/qoH2tEWhhq

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) June 14, 2020

We don’t have an exact time for when Churchill’s Knowledge Graph image will be restored, but it will be as rapidly done as possible. We’ll want to explore exactly why an automatic update caused it to disappear & see if there are any improvements in those systems to address….

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) June 14, 2020

However, netizens were not impressed with their apology and demanded to know the main reason behind it. Many also have been either sharing photos of Churchill online in his honour.

Earlier this week, current British PM Boris Johnson reacted to the controversy surrounding Churchill’s legacy and how his statue was targeted by demonstrators. “The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square is a permanent reminder of his achievement in saving this country – and the whole of Europe – from a fascist and racist tyranny,” he tweeted.

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“We cannot now try to edit or censor our past. We cannot pretend to have a different history. The statues in our cities and towns were put up by previous generations,” he added in a serious of tweets saying “Yes, he sometimes expressed opinions that were and are unacceptable to us today, but he was a hero, and he fully deserves his memorial.”

First published on: 14-06-2020 at 07:41:16 pm