Google search gaffe dubs Pinarayi Vijayan a 'bad chief minister'

Pinarayi Vijayan

In an embarrassing moment for Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Google's search results displayed the CPI(M) veteran's Wikipedia page for "bad chief minister" on Wednesday.

On Monday, Google recorded over 20,000 searches on the keyword 'bad chief minister’. Vijayan’s supporters sense that the opposition is behind this incident. It is not the first time that a Google search is in the news for wrong results. Earlier, when you searched for the word ‘idiot’, an image of US President Donald Trump would pop up on the screen.

In 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen in the list of ‘Top 10 criminals’ on Google next to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and Libyan leader Gaddafi. Even in 2009, the search engine showed pictures of the former first lady of US, Michelle Obama’s face retouched to have ape-like features. In the early 2000s, searches for miserable failures loaded with results of President George W Bush. 

Google in its explanation said that the algorithm works on what people search for and lists out a bunch of pages and websites where the keywords match. “Sometimes, the way images are described on the internet can yield surprising results to specific queries. We apologise for any confusion or misunderstanding this has caused. We’re continually working to improve our algorithms to prevent unexpected results like this.”

Vijayan has been engrossed in handling the Sabarimala situation Kerala witnessing unprecedented violence between workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the CPI(M).  Both parties have accused each other of orchestrating violence in the state. As many as 5,769 people have been arrested, and 1,869 cases have been registered in hartal-related violence in the state after two women entered the Lord Ayyappa shrine on January 2.