Kannada Insulted by Google's Featured Answer as "Ugliest Language in India"

In May 2021, Google's search algorithm displayed a featured snippet identifying Kannada as 'the ugliest language in India' when users searched for this query. The result stated 'The answer is Kannada spoken by around 40 million people in south India.' This response was sourced from a website called debtconsolidationsquestions.com, which was registered in Russia and provided no owner information. The result caused immediate and widespread outrage among Kannada speakers across India, with #Kannada trending on Twitter. Several politicians from Karnataka state, including minister Arvind Limbavali, condemned Google and threatened legal action against the company for maligning their language. Kannada is one of India's national languages with a 2,500-year history and is spoken by approximately 40 million people. Google quickly removed the offensive result and issued an apology, explaining that their featured snippets sometimes yield surprising results based on how content is described on the internet. The company stated that the results do not reflect Google's opinions and that they take swift corrective action when made aware of issues. The incident highlighted the fallibility of Google's featured snippets function, which automatically pulls information from third-party sources to display as fact boxes above regular search results.