Funny Language Codes in Google Analytics Data

While checking out my Google Analytics data, I noticed a couple strange language codes. Language codes are strings like "en-us" that a browser sends to a server when requesting a web page to let the server know what language the browser's user prefers. The server then uses this information to return a web page in the appropriate language if it's available.

In my Google Analytics data, the top language code was "en-us". That's not surprising: most of the people who visit my websites speak American English. The second and tenth most common languages were very strange.

Number two was

Secret.ɢoogle.com You are invited! Enter only with this ticket URL. Copy it. Vote for Trump!

I'm guessing that url probably serves malware. I have no idea why they included a Trump endorsement.

The tenth entry was

Vitaly rules google ☆:。゜゚・ヽ(^ᴗ^)ノ・゜゚。:☆ ¯_(ツ)/¯(ಠ益ಠ)(ಥ‿ಥ)(ʘ‿ʘ)ლ(ಠಠლ)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ヽ(゚Д゚)ノʕ•̫͡•ʔᶘ ᵒᴥᵒᶅ(=^ ^=)oO

So based on the name Vitaly, I guess the person who is changing their browser's language code is actually Russian. Maybe, maybe not. Either way, he/she sure loves emoji. I'm not sure how changing your browser's language code implies that you somehow "rule google", but whatever.

Apparently this is a well-known problem affecting Google Analytics and it's all caused by one guy.