Why did Winston Churchill’s picture get removed from the list of British Prime Ministers on Google?

Team Udayavani, Jun 15, 2020, 2:04 PM IST

Winston Churchill’s photo mysteriously disappeared from Google’s list of British prime ministers overnight.

Many Twitter users pointed out the absence of the photograph, speculating it was done intentionally.

Here’s why it got removed

As many users were tagging google and questioning the tech company, Google responded saying, “ This was not purposeful & will be resolved. Images in such panels are automatically created & updated. During an update, they can briefly disappear”

We’re aware an image for Sir Winston Churchill is missing from his Knowledge Graph entry on Google. We apologise for any concern. This was not purposeful & will be resolved. Images in such panels are automatically created & updated. During an update, they can briefly disappear….

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) June 14, 2020

Further, 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”

“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” it added

Google claims the issue was not specific to Churchill and also impacted results for Wilson, MacDonald and Baldwin, adding ‘it might be that our systems are only displaying the last term of prime ministers who had non-consecutive terms.’

Lastly, the issue was resolved by google, they tweeted saying, “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.”

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