Journalist Discovers Google Vulnerability That Silently Deletes Search Results

A journalist discovered that Google’s search system contained a major security flaw, enabling users to remove particular web pages from search results.

Jack Poulson, a reporter, found two of his articles completely missing from Google searches. “We only found it by complete coincidence,” Poulson told 404 Media. “I happened to be Googling for one of the articles, and even when I typed in the exact title in quotes it wouldn’t show up in search results anymore,” he added.

Poulson discovered the bug was linked to Google’s Refresh Outdated Content tool, which lets anyone submit a webpage URL for re-indexing after an update. The flaw involved changes in letter capitalization in the URL during these requests, causing Google to delist entire pages, even if they were still live online.

One of the articles affected was about tech CEO Delwin Maurice Blackman’s 2021 felony arrest for domestic violence, published in 2023. Blackman tried to send lawsuits and takedown requests to hide this negative coverage from public view.

However, this story disappeared from Google search results only when this bug story came to light. 404 Media reported that Poulson said the only articles from his newsletter that experienced this problem were related to Blackman.

Google confirmed the issue to 404 Media: “This tool helps ensure our search results are up to date. We’re vigilant in monitoring abuse, and we worked quickly to roll out a fix for this specific issue, which was only impacting a tiny fraction of web pages.”

Ahmed Zidan from the Freedom of the Press Foundation also found that one of their articles on Poulson’s fight against censorship had been de-listed. He explained to 404 Media how attackers repeatedly submitted URLs with different capital letters in the slug, tricking Google into de-indexing the real pages.

Zidan urged, “We would really love Google and other social platforms to be more transparent with advocacy and press freedom organizations.”

Because anyone can use the tool anonymously, it’s unclear who abused the flaw, but all targeted articles related to Blackman.

Poulson warned, “It’s basically just silent censorship […] any child could do this. If your article doesn’t appear in Google search results, in many ways it just doesn’t exist.”