Ian H Watkins ‘Upset’ Over Google News Photo Mix-Up

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PopWrapped Admin

Published

December 21, 2013

Mia Johnson

Staff Writer

Google has been approached by lawyers of Steps member Ian ‘H’ Watkins, whose picture was misattributed to stories about the now convicted Ian Watkins of the Lostprohets.

Management of the singer has said that lawyers are “taking immediate steps to urgently rectify the position.”

After settling a bout against E! Online, who made the mistake of using his picture instead of Ian Watkins in an article, he says he is “astonished” that his photo is still linked with “the appalling crimes of the Lostprophets singer.”

The problem with Google arose not from human error like the E! Online case. In order to manage their news, Google uses a series of algorithms that help to draw in the most relevant information for a news story. In this case, the algorithm failed to match the Lostprophets member with the correct photograph.

“For some specific searches Ian H Watkins’ picture is appearing in our results because he is relevant to the story, having received a court apology,” a spokesperson for Google has explained. “We are looking into the issue he raises.”

After being alerted of the mix-up, Ian H Watkins had taken to Twitter to express his outrage saying that he is both “angry and upset.”

He has also confirmed via Twitter that his lawyers are indeed “dealing with @google” at the moment.