Former US president Joe Biden is out of the White House now but a major controversy erupted when Google omitted the 82-year-old leader from its search results. A report in The Independent claimed that the search engine giant completely omitted Biden’s four-year term from its results. Some social media users also shared their experience, claiming that Biden was not featuring on Google’s list of US presidents.
.@Google so if I type in US Presidents I get a list of US Presidents in order of when they were in office except there's no @JoeBiden.
— Kristine (@schachin on Threads) 🇺🇦 (@schachin) January 23, 2025
Anyone know why? @searchliaison what's going on? #SEO @BARRY pic.twitter.com/BX9XKTl0Ab
The list showed Donald Trump to have served the previous two terms from 2017 onwards, with Biden’s name nowhere to be found. The list correctly mentioned former presidents’ name prior to 2017, namely Barack Obama, George Bush, and Bill Clinton, and going back to George Washington.
Google’s response
Google acknowledged the error soon and said it occurred due to some “data error.”
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"There was a brief data error in our knowledge graph," a Google spokesperson was quoted as saying by CNBC. "We identified the root cause and resolved it quickly."
Reaction on social media
Amid confusion, some users on social media claimed that omitting Biden’s name from search results may be a strategy of the big tech to further suck up to the Trump presidency.
"If this stands, this will be one of the boldest and most dangerous moments in the existence of the internet, as it will be a clear show of force that those in opposition will disappear completely," one user wrote.
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"Google United States Presidents and Biden is not on there. This is bigger than social media," a second user highlighted.
"Who paid Google to initiate this SEO bullsh*t to help erase an entire presidency?" commented a third.
Earlier, it was reported that Google contributed $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund. At the inauguration event, Google CEO Sundar Pichai was seen holding a prominent position on stage.
(With inputs from agencies)