Google Search for ‘Best Toilet Paper in the World’ Shows Pak Flag

“We have not found any evidence that Google Images was ranking the Pakistani flag,” Google said.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@JackRhysider)

After reports of the Pakistan flag showing up if one searches for ‘Best toilet paper in the world,’ Google has come out with a statement, saying that it has not found any evidence that Google was ranking the Pakistan flag in response to this search.

“While we continue to investigate the matter, we have not found any evidence that Google Images was ranking the Pakistani flag in response to this particular search. Many news outlets wrote about an old screenshot from a meme website that is inconsistent with our UI and dates back to 2017, and we have not seen any independent verification that these results ever appeared as depicted. Since these news stories published, images from those articles are now ranking for this query, as the pages contain words relevant to the search.”

Google Statement

It was reported that Google was showing the Pakistan flag when one searched for the "best toilet paper in the world", the "best China-made toilet paper" or just "toilet paper".

The glitch on Google Search results was noticed a couple of days after the 14 February terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district that left 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel dead.

Screenshots of the search results have gone viral as memes, posts and status updates on several social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Apart from images of the Pakistan flags, a search for toilet paper-related queries on Google shows results for a number of media reports that have been circulating around the subject. However, now the image of the flag has been overpowered by the heavy SEO being used by all the media reports reporting the glitch.

A query to Google about whether the glitch has been taken care of or not went unanswered.

This happens as a result of Google algorithms that have often displayed inappropriate search results on certain topics, owing to the popular user behaviour around the said topic.

Earlier, searching words like "Feku", "Pappu" and "Idiot" led users to images of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress President Rahul Gandhi and US President Donald Trump, respectively.

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(With inputs from IANS)