Google refutes any evidence linking toilet paper search to Pakistan national flag

Tech giant Google on Tuesday said it has not found any evidence that search for 'toilet paper' on its site was showing images of Pakistani flag.

The clarification came after the screenshots of purported search results posted by some social media users went viral on Facebook and other platforms in the aftermath of the terror attack in south Kashmir's Pulwama district that killed 40 CRPF personnel.

"While we continue to investigate the matter, we have not found any evidence that Google Images was ranking the Pakistani flag in response to this particular search," Google spokesperson said.

On February 14, a 70-vehicle convoy carrying CRPF jawans from Jammu to Srinagar was struck with an IED blast. In what was one of the worst terror attacks in recent times, 40 CRPF jawans lost their lives, and the responsibility for the attack was claimed by terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad.

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The spokesperson added that many news outlets wrote about an old screenshot from a meme website that was inconsistent with Google's UI (users interface) and dated back to 2017.

"We have not seen any independent verification that these results ever appeared as depicted. Since these news stories published, images from those articles are now ranking for this query, as the pages contain words relevant to the search," the spokesperson noted.

This is not the first time that the search giant has had to clarify on inappropriate results on its search engine. Last year, Google's CEO was asked to explain to the US Congress why a search for the term 'idiot' yielded images of US President Donald Trump.