TL; DR
- Google mistakenly labeled a man a serial killer.
- The search result of his name showed his picture next to a Wikipedia article about a rapist and murderer.
Imagine you’re ready for an interview or a first date and the person you’re about to meet on Google just finds out that you’re a serial killer! Certainly this is the stuff of nightmares, but for a Zurich man it became all too real thanks to Google.
Hristo Georgiev was scrolling through his inbox when he came across an email from a former colleague. The message warned him that a Google search for his name came up with his picture, which was linked to a Wikipedia article about a serial killer.
It turns out that Georgiev unfortunately shares his name with a Bulgarian rapist and serial killer popularly known as The Sadist, who murdered five people between 1974 and 1980, Georgiev, the engineer. However, something like this could potentially have a much darker impact, as Georgiev points out in his blog post on the incident.
The problem appears to be due to Google’s Knowledge Graph algorithm, which somehow incorrectly matched Georgiev’s picture with the article about the serial killer. Google uses the Knowledge Graph in its search engine results to gather information from a variety of sources. This information is displayed to users in the form of an information box next to the search results. Below is what the search result for Georgiev’s name looked like.
“The rampant spread of fake news and the culture of abandonment has literally made anyone who is not anonymous open to attack. Anyone who is present on the Internet today has to take care of their online presence, ”warned Georgiev in his blog post.
Fortunately, Google fixed its bug after Georgiev approached Hacker News about that. The website accelerated the problem and its image is no longer associated with that of the serial killer. However, many commenters on the portal pointed out that Google’s Knowledge Graph boxes are riddled with errors.
“I have also seen poor body weight results for diseases, listed the wrong symptoms or described easily treatable diseases as ‘incurable’. Now I am actively ignoring the info box and deliberately clicking my way to an authoritative non-Google website, ”wrote one user.
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