They changed the flag

Its been that way. People looked on the wayback machine.

They didn't actually change this though. Older versions of the site have had the same icon. I'm assuming because it's easier to remain legible at small sizes.

It's been that way for as long as I can remember, and it's not a Confederate flag. It's just too small of an icon to include 50 visible stars. Focus on things that really matter, don't get caught up in this kind of stuff.