Bengaluru Google, the USA-based search engine giant, on Thursday found itself at the receiving end of severe criticism over its search results for Kannada, which had a descriptor as the “ugliest language”.
The backlash from the Kannada language speakers, which is one of the national languages in the country, was so spontaneous that #Kannada was trending on microblogging site, Twitter across the country.
Other hashtags like #KannadaQueenOfAllLanguages also continued to trend on Twitter.
According to the image shared widely on social media, the search result for the ugliest language in India came up as Kannada.
“What is the ugliest language in India?” was the question, to which the answer was shown as “Kannada spoken by around 40 million people in south India,” according to a screenshot of the search results.
“Kannada language has a history of its own, having come into existence as many as 2,500 years ago! It has been the pride of Kannadigas all through these two-and-a-half millennia,” Arvind Limbavali, Karnataka’s minister for forest, Kannada and culture said in a twitter post.
“If Kannada is now called ugliest language in India, it is merely an attempt by @Google
{{/usCountry}}“If Kannada is now called ugliest language in India, it is merely an attempt by @Google
{{/usCountry}}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!,” he added.
“Home to the great Vijayanagara Empire, #Kannada language has a rich heritage, a glorious legacy and a unique culture. One of the world’s oldest languages, Kannada had great scholars who wrote epics much before Geoffrey Chaucer was born in the 14th century. Apologise @GoogleIndia,” PC Mohan, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Bengaluru Central posted on Twitter.
Politicians from all major outfits in Karnataka took to social media to condemn the Indian-born Sundar Pichchai-led companies to apologise on the content.
“This blunder is not acceptable. When it comes to language, whoever it is should be careful. Especially when it comes to Kannada, twice the care should be taken. Otherwise, there will be no surprise if the self-respect of Kannadiga’s that became a wave in just one hour, can turn into a Tsunami,” HD Kumaraswamy, former chief minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader said in a post in Kannada on Twitter.
The search engine giant, in a response to Hindustan Times, apologised for the misunderstanding and to those whose sentiment may have been hurt.
“Search isn’t always perfect. Sometimes, the way content is described on the Internet can yield surprising results to specific queries. We know this is not ideal, but we take swift corrective action when we are made aware of an issue and are continually working to improve our algorithms. Naturally, these are not reflective of the opinions of Google, and we apologize for the misunderstanding and hurting any sentiments,” a Google spokesperson said.