Churchill's picture mysteriously vanishes from list of British PMs; Google to 'explore' why

Google has said it would explore why the picture of Britain’s World War II leader Winston Churchill disappeared from a top search results list of former UK prime ministers -- as protesters call for his statue to be torn down.

The wartime leader is the only prime minister to be left without a photo.

Clement Attlee, Neville Chamberlain and Stanley Baldwin, who all served before Churchill, are still displayed with their images. Adolf Hitler's picture is also still displaying on the search engine.

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To this end, the search giant said the photo’s removal from its horizontal list atop search results for former British premiers was due to an automatic update and “not purposeful”, but apologised “for any concern”.The search engine has claimed the image disappeared due to an update, and said it would be resolved 'as rapidly as possible'.

“We’re aware an image for Sir Winston Churchill is missing from his knowledge graph entry on Google,” the firm’s search liaison arm said on Twitter.

“We apologise for any concern. This was not purposeful & will be resolved. Images in such panels are automatically created & updated. During an update, they can briefly disappear.”

“We’ll want to explore exactly why an automatic update caused it to disappear & see if there are any improvements in those systems to address.”

"We don't have an exact time for when Churchill's Knowledge Graph image will be restored, but it will be as rapidly done as possible."

His image is not showing up in the UK, US, Australia, South Africa, and other countries, according to social media users.

All this has come amid an escalating row over whether Churchill should be commemorated in parliament square.

While Churchill is admired by many for his role in defeating Nazi Germany, some in the anti-racism movement have called for more scrutiny of his overall legacy, noting he expressed racist and anti-Semitic views.

On Friday, Johnson called it "absurd and shameful" that the Churchill statue was at risk of attack. "Yes, he sometimes expressed opinions that were and are unacceptable to us today, but he was a hero," he said.

There have been demonstrations around the world against racism and police abuses since the death of African American George Floyd in Minneapolis last month. In British cities tens of thousands of people have marched peacefully during previous days of protest.

In London the demonstrators numbered fewer on Saturday than in recent days, after announcements by far-right groups that they would converge on the city centre prompted anti-racism activists to cancel a planned march and instead call for scattered protests.

Statues of historical figures including Winston Churchill were boarded up to prevent them from becoming flashpoints or being defaced by protesters who say such monuments celebrate racists.