The incident lasted for a few hours
By Akash Pandey
Jan 24, 2025
What's the story
In a recent incident, Google suffered a technical glitch that briefly erased former US President Joe Biden from its list of American Presidents.
The problem, which was subsequently blamed on a 'data error,' triggered a heated debate on the tech giant's capacity to manage politically sensitive information.
The incident took place on Thursday morning and continued for a few hours before Google fixed it.
Omission details
In a recent incident, Google suffered a technical glitch that briefly erased former US President Joe Biden from its list of American Presidents.
The problem, which was subsequently blamed on a 'data error,' triggered a heated debate on the tech giant's capacity to manage politically sensitive information.
The incident took place on Thursday morning and continued for a few hours before Google fixed it.
Omission details
Biden's term was missing from search results
The issue came to light after users observed that Biden's term was absent from Google Search results for the list of "US Presidents."
Instead of listing Biden's tenure after Barack Obama, the list displayed both of Donald Trump's terms, giving the impression that Trump had served two consecutive terms.
The error sparked widespread speculation and concern on social media platforms.
Twitter Post
Take a look at the search results
Error correction
Google rectifies error and restores Biden's presidency
By early Thursday, Google had fixed the error and restored Biden's presidency in its search results.
In a statement to CNBC, the company said, "There was a brief data error in our knowledge graph."
The tech giant further clarified that it had identified the root cause of this issue and resolved it quickly.
Despite Google's swift resolution, the Biden presidency omission has reignited a long-standing debate about the alleged political bias of big tech companies.
Twitter Post
'US President 2020-2024' shows Trump in results
Ongoing scrutiny
Other tech platforms facing political challenges
Google's error comes at a time when tech firms are already facing intense scrutiny over their handling of political content.
TikTok was recently accused of limiting access to anti-Trump content, while Meta faced user complaints about being automatically made to follow President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Instagram and Facebook after the new administration took office.
Meanwhile, Meta's AI chatbot has struggled to recognize the leadership change. It continued to identify Joe Biden as the sitting president.
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