Google Search bug allowed people to erase articles from results
What's the story
A recent discovery by journalist Jack Poulson has revealed a major vulnerability in Google's search engine. The flaw, which was uncovered by accident, allowed specific web pages to be removed from search results. Poulson found that two of his articles had been completely de-listed by Google due to someone exploiting the Refresh Outdated Content Tool. "We only found it by complete coincidence," he told 404 Media.
Exploitation details
Exploiting Google's tool
The tool in question, Google's Refresh Outdated Content tool, is designed for users to submit URLs for recrawling and re-indexing after updates. However, Poulson discovered that by capitalizing different letters in a URL while using this tool, it could be exploited to delist specific web pages from the search engine. This SEO trick could easily be misused for reputation management or information suppression purposes.
Response and resolution
Company confirms the issue
After Poulson's articles were removed using this exploit, he discovered that tech CEO Delwin Maurice Blackman had been trying to suppress a 2023 article about his 2021 arrest on felony domestic violence charges. Blackman has tried lawsuits and DMCA takedown requests to suppress the story. In response to the issue raised by Poulson, Google confirmed the problem in an email and said it had rolled out a fix for this specific issue affecting only a tiny fraction of web pages.
Additional impact
A non-profit organization was also affected
The Freedom of the Press Foundation, a non-profit organization that advocates for press freedom, has also been affected by this bug. An article detailing Poulson's battle against censorship was de-listed from Google. Ahmed Zidan, the foundation's Deputy Director of Audience, discovered that someone had made repeated requests to recrawl its article about Poulson and Blackman between May and June.