Something strange happened on Google News on Tuesday that involved both David Lammy, the member of Parliament for Tottenham, and Nasa, the American space agency. Yep, strange.
The Labour MP shared a screenshot of a Google link to an Independent article on Nasa with a picture of himself as the accompanying image.
As you can imagine, this was probably quite a confusing sight.
Hi @Independent I don't work for @NASA. I'm not an astronaut I'm the Member of Parliament for Tottenham. pic.twitter.com/eT9pImFDDA
June 27, 2017— David Lammy (@DavidLammy)
It’s not every day that you’re outed on the internet as a secret astronaut – but the blame lay with Google, not the Independent.
Google News can sometimes pull the first image from an article, whatever it is, and an image of Lammy was probably underneath the top video at the time.
When typing Nasa into Google later in the day an image of George Galloway appeared next to the Independent story – and sure enough an image of Galloway was also under the video on the website.
Some people pointed out how great the story – which was Nasa confirming they haven’t found alien life after a viral video claimed they had – had the potential to be.
'David Lammy to announce alien life discovery' would've been a much better story
June 27, 2017— Ben Kentish (@BenKentish)
Theresa May even briefly usurped Lammy from his new-found astronaut status.
Fortunately for you Google has now decided Nasa is Theresa May and Arlene Foster pic.twitter.com/rDXUXCCwTT
June 27, 2017— Maya Oppenheim (@MayaOppenheim)
Brendan Cox pointed out it was probably as close to Nasa as the Tottenham MP will ever get.
That was your chance!
June 27, 2017— Brendan Cox (@MrBrendanCox)
But some weren’t at all convinced by Lammy’s protestations.
That's exactly what someone who secretly works for NASA would say….🤔
June 27, 2017— MaSenn (@MaSenn_)
It’s definitely one to keep an eye on…