New Hampshire Town Wins War with Google over Unflattering Photo

Users who Googled Londonderry, New Hampshire would find an unflattering photo of five women holding guns and a man crossing his arms in the Google “Knowledge Panel” next to the map of the town. That image was apparently a wedding photo of State Rep. Al Baldasaro, which went viral in 2013. After locals complained, town officials repeatedly prompted Google to take down the photo.

“If you Google other towns in New Hampshire, it really talks about the culture of the town, not about one individual,” Londonderry Council Chairman John Farrell told the New York Times. “A town is about 25,000 people, not about one person.”

Apparently, on Tuesday, Google caved to requests to remove the image from the Knowledge Panel — as of now, only the map remains. The change came soon after a local newspaper published a story about the town’s efforts to change or remove the unflattering photo, Coincidence? Maybe not. The town’s legal counsel, Mitchell Ramsdell, sent a letter to Google on Feb. 17, but never heard back from the company, NYT reported.

Baldasaro, the man in the photo, came under scrutiny last year when he said that Hillary Clinton “should be put in the firing line and shot for treason.” The resulting increase in search interest may have triggered Google’s algorithm to place the photo in such a prominent position, although the Mountain View company didn’t comment on how the picture ended up there. For his part, Baldasaro told the Union Leader that the viral 2013 photo “had no business being there,” and shouldn’t be associated with the town. He suggested either the photo be replaced with a picture of the local Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, or one of the city’s orchards.

Google has since confirmed that the photo was removed from the Londonderry Knowledge Panel. In the future, Google said it hopes a new photo that is relevant and useful would be displayed.