Google's search results for North Carolina Republican state Sen. Trudy Wade displayed an out-of-date photograph and the word "bigot" written in red over her picture, Vice News reported Friday.
The incident occurred the same week that the tech giant blamed Wikipedia for search results that showed the California GOP as having Nazism as an ideology.
Wade, who the article described as an "enthusiastic supporter" of President Donald Trump, is in a tough re-election battle against Democrat Michael Garrett.
When asked for comment, one of Wade's aides said, "the picture isn't even current."
Google took down the photo after accounts of the search results were published online. They sent a statement that Vice said read, "Information and images from our Knowledge Panels are automatically sourced from around the web. When we are alerted to issues like this, we move quickly to fix the problem, as we did in this case."
Google on Thursday was in explanation mode as the internet giant explained why search results for "California Republican Party" included information that "Nazism" was a party ideology. In that instance, Google blamed "vandalism" at Wikipedia, which it said it relies on for some information used in search results. Google quickly took down the section on ideology.
However, the information about Wade did not come from Wikipedia, but from a 2012 post from a progressive blogger, Vice explained. The blogger was upset about a vote Wade, who was on the Greensboro City Council at the time, had made in support of a state ban on same-sex marriages and civil unions.
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