The internet reported a missing person over the weekend, and no, he was not just some random person. The person in question happened to be Winston Churchill, former prime minister of the United Kingdom. For some reason, his photo went missing on Google's search engine.
Netizens were baffled upon finding out that a Google search of Churchill rendered a result without an image. Google claimed it was an error and has since issued a fix, but people did not let it pass and demanded the search giant for an explanation.
While Churchill's photo was missing, netizens were quick to point out that pictures of Mao, Stalin, and Adolf Filter were still present. Users raised this point due to the fact that the PM's photo disappeared in the wake of a Black Lives Matter protest in London over the weekend, to which Churchill's statue had been left vandalized with the word "racist."
On Sunday, the tech giant offered an explanation and apologized for the gaff. On Twitter, the company claimed that the incident "was not purposeful and will be resolved." It said that the missing photo was due to a glitch caused by an update.
Google explained that it had recently received criticism for using a younger photograph of Churchill, which less-recognizable than how he is usually portrayed. Upon review, the search engine's human curators decided that the image was indeed "not the most representative" of the former prime minister, and blocked it so a new image would automatically appear. However, the replacement image failed to load.
Users were quick to point out that Google only showed one term of Churchill's reign, accusing the company was hiding his legacy on purpose. While resolving the issue, the company said they would explore why an update would cause a photo to disappear and see if any improvements can be made.
Again, users would not be swayed. Many were left unimpressed with Google's apology, forcing a reason out of the search giant. The sudden surge of searching for Churchill is tied to the vandalism incident in London, prompting the current British PM Borish Johnson to address the issue.
"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. "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."
