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Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) would like Google to know that reports of his death have been greatly exaggerated. The search engine showed that Hatch had died in 2017, apparently based on a bad Wikipedia edit left unchecked.<\/p>\n
\u201cHi Google? We might need to talk,\u201d<\/em> Hatch\u2019s office tweeted on Monday night, with a screenshot of the search listing the senator as having died on September 11 last year.<\/p>\n This was followed by a photo of Hatch reading a newspaper, as well as video of him signing some bills last week \u2013 overlaid by a Snapchat cartoon of Hatch enjoying some hot dogs that has to be seen to be believed.<\/p>\n But wait, there\u2019s more! The office also posted a \u201cproof of life\u201d<\/em> photo of Hatch preparing for an interview on Capitol Hill, \u201calive and well.\u201d<\/em> There were also photos and videos of Hatch meeting<\/a> with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh, visiting<\/a> the WWII memorial, and celebrating his 84th birthday in March, with bacon<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated,\u201d<\/em> Hatch said, paraphrasing Mark Twain, in a video posted on Tuesday.<\/p>\n A follow-up tweet by his staff revealed that the senator\u2019s \u201cdemise\u201d<\/em> was caused by a Wikipedia edit. \u201cBut long after the Wikipedia page was fixed, Senator Hatch remained dead on his Google search so they kindly fixed it manually,\u201d<\/em> they added.<\/p>\n Pressured by the congressional witch-hunt for \u201cfake news\u201d<\/em> in the wake of the 2016 US presidential election, Google has sought to fact-check information presented on the internet by using \u201cauthoritative\u201d<\/em> and \u201cunbiased\u201d<\/em> sources such as Wikipedia. Solid in theory, the approach has been far less successful in practice, as Hatch\u2019s case illustrates. Another infamous instance<\/a> involved describing Republicans in California as \u201cNazis.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n Wikipedia has long been vulnerable to malicious editing<\/a>, as just about anyone can make changes to the online encyclopedia.<\/p>\n Like this story? Share it with a friend!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n