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Comment by Xorlev | Hacker News Reader

Maybe don't be so alarmist? Bugs do happen.

This is no bug, this is intentional. Google the names of UK's PMs, from Johnson, May, Cameron going all the way. Only one PM does not get their photo displayed on the page with search results. Not because it failed to load/whatever, the page layout simply does not contain the photo in the place where it is for all others.

You don't know that. For all you know, some kind of knowledge graph tag propagated too far. There is zero evidence of it being intentional.

You really think they'd just erase the photos of UK PMs? Please. If there was some kind of conspiracy there, don't you think hiding the information too (vs linking directly to the pages that have it) would be a more effective strategy?

I know it's fun to jump on Google as the dictator erasing history here, but have you really thought this position through? Especially when one of Google's big industries is education, and kids are going to write papers about WW2, and various British PMs?

Not erase, just add it to the already long list of suppressed and filtered content. Have you tried what I suggested, have you googled the names of few PMs? The page with search results for Churchill lacks the code to display photo in the bio at the right side. The layout and code is different, it's not just failing to load, cache problem or whatever.

The most likely explanation is that a google employee added the photo on a block list in support of BLM.

A (cache or whatever) problem that leads to the property not being set would produce exactly that result.

It also seems clear that there isn't one global list of these people and their portraits Google uses to feed these boxes: When I compare the screenshot someone posted below with what I see, many of the leaders have different portraits.

It would be an incredible coincidence that it's just him and right at this time. Also, from Google's support thread, he is receiving the same treatment as Weinstein, apparently Churchill was added to a list of people for whom Google won't show photo in the bio summary, next to Weinstein.

And somehow that "list of people Google won't show photos for" applies in some European countries and not in others? Because Google is showing pictures for both of them to me.

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