Unpleasant Google Trends Subversion: ✈ ▌▌

Google Trends, which shows hot queries on Google at any given time, is sporting a nasty item at no. 2 today: a plane flying into two towers.

In July a swastika appeared on Google Trends, leading to endless debate on whether it was an ugly symbol or not. Later that month the site was attacked again. 4Chan was the culprit last time, we’ll see if they’re again responsible.

Here’s the statement Google released last time this happened:

The Hot Trends list is automatically generated by machines and algorithms that detect hot or breaking queries. In this case, it appears that the html code for this query was posted on a popular internet bulletin board, which led to quite a few people searching to find out more about this symbol. The Hot Trends list reflected that surge due to people searching with this query.