Google referred to Sen. David Perdue on Tuesday as a “lying, unscrupulous politician” when the Republican senator’s name was searched.

The “knowledge graph” on the right side of the search page said “David Alfred Perdue Jr. is an American businessman and lying, unscrupulous politician. He is a junior United States Senator from Georgia, having been elected in 2014 to the seat previously held by Saxby Chambliss, who retired.”



Wikipedia was cited as the source. It appears that the senator’s Wikipedia page was changed to include such wording, but the description was restored to its original wording three minutes later, according to a revision history page.

"Information that appears in the Knowledge Graph comes from a variety of sources from across the web, and we typically require factual validation from multiple sources. Occasionally, we can get this wrong, and in this case, our system was able to address the issue quickly,” a Google spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.

The knowledge graph has since been changed, removing “lying” and “unscrupulous.”



The description may have been in reference to Perdue’s defense of President Trump on Sunday over the president’s alleged “shithole” remark.

The Georgia Republican said Trump did not use the phrase “shithole countries” during a meeting on immigration reform.

"I'm telling you he did not use that word,” Perdue told ABC. “I’m telling you it's a gross misrepresentation.”

Editor's note: This story has been updated to show that Sen. Perdue's Wikipedia page, which Google had cited, was briefly changed to include the words "lying, unscrupulous politician."