After Google displayed humiliating and furious result of ‘the ugliest language in India’ as Kannada in its search results, there is a widespread outrage among Kannadigas all over the world. If one searches (now removed) ‘what is the ugliest language in India’, Google showed Kannada all the while. Soon after, Twitter met with howls of anger from Kannada language speakers and admirers.
Online Campaign Over Disrespect: Seeking an apology for the brutal disrespect for their mother tongue, “Kindly remove this result as soon as possible. No language is ugly in India. ಕನ್ನಡ ಒಂದು ಸುಂದರ ಭಾಷೆ,” wrote a user on Twitter. The Forest and Cultural Minister of Karnataka, Arvind Kimbavali tweeted “ If Kannada is now called ugliest language in India, it is merely an attempt by Google to insult this pride of Kannadigas. Demand apology from Google ASAP to Kannada, Kannadigas. Legal action will be taken against Google for maligning the image of our beautiful language.”
In a series of tweets in Kannada, Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy asked why the company was being insensitive towards languages. “Is it impossible for Google to regulate such hatred towards language in advance?” he asked.
What Google said: Following the backlash, Google modified the results for the search around 3 pm. On Thursday evening, the company released a statement on Twitter. “We apologise for the misunderstanding and hurting any sentiments,” it read. “Search isn’t always perfect. Sometimes, the way content is described on the Internet can yield a surprising result to specific queries.” Google said that the company took “swift corrective action” and are also working to improve its algorithms. “Naturally, these are not reflective of the opinions of Google, and we apologize for the misunderstanding and hurting any sentiments,” it added.
As we know, Google Search only shows what its algorithm tracks, based on keywords for websites and their content online. Earlier Google Search showed former POTUS Donald Trump’s name when searching for the word ‘idiot’ and sparked fury on similar levels. Sundar Pichai explained back then how the results are based on google search indexes, webpages, images on them as well as keywords and the search results are not displayed due to human intervention on Google’s part. In a similar vein, when we search for the most beautiful language in India, and Google shows Telugu. It links to the article with keywords, proving that Google Search gets influenced by the content a website holds. It has got nothing to do with Google.
The blogger behind the ruckus: Beauty should not have questions like why or how – It is just the goodness that we all can embrace. The same goes for all the languages. Calling any language ‘ugly’ shows how small-minded we are. The hateful post from a blog website that said that Kannada was the ugliest language in India said to have thought that the language is the least recognisable language in the South. Well, the blogger really had some courage and confidence to say wrong things. However, because of the support from fellow Kannadigas, the post has been taken down by Google, but the story does not end here. Language speakers really want to know why these hate and abusive comments are made on their language. In conclusion, Kannadigas protested online asking the local government to take strict action against those who defame it and demanded equal respect for each language in the country.
This post was last modified on %s = human-readable time difference 11:42 am
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