Google delists Pragmatic Engineer creator Gergely Orosz's investigation into Pollen's collapse following a fraudulent DMCA takedown · Digg

/Tech3h ago

Google delists Pragmatic Engineer creator Gergely Orosz's investigation into Pollen's collapse following a fraudulent DMCA takedown

Story Overview

An investigative piece on the chaotic collapse of events company Pollen, complete with details on unpaid staff and executive moves, vanished from Google Search results after a DMCA notice arrived from a nonexistent claimant on the empty Bouvet Islands.

16528615825.4K

Original post

Gergely Orosz@GergelyOrosz#1155inTech

Google removed my article about the shameful collapse of events tech company Pollen (employees lied to by CEO Callum Negus-Fancey, salaries unpaid, a seemingly deliberate $3.2M customer double charge manually initiated by CTO Brad Wright).

Google decied that "Ellie Piee" claiming to live in this uninhabited island (the Bouvet Islands, zero inhabitants) claiming that my article is the exact copy of a 1998 New Yorker article (not even a sentence shared!) is credible evidence to remove my investigation about Pollen from its search results.

I wrote up a new article about it: https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/pollen-tried-to-remove-my-article-about-callum-negus-fancey-and-google-is-assisting-to-it/

10:32 AM · Jun 28, 2026 · 26.1K Views

Policy Risk

Google's handling of notices leaves room for quick abuse

The complaint cited a 1998 New York Post story with no textual overlap to Orosz's reporting, yet the delisting happened anyway, showing how little scrutiny these filings receive before content disappears.

Open Question

Restoration depends on an appeal whose outcome is still unclear

Orosz filed a counter-notice, but no timeline or decision details have surfaced, leaving the article's visibility in search results hanging without any public check on the original claim's validity.

Sentiment

Many users condemned Google for accepting a bogus DMCA claim from Bouvet Island to remove an article on pollen collapse, calling the process broken, absurd, and a weaponization of the system.

Pos

0.0%

Neg

100.0%

11 comments with sentiment.

Cluster Engagement

Digg Deeper

No Digg Deeper questions have been answered for this story yet.

Related links

Pollen tried to remove my article about CEO Callum Negus-Fancey and CTO Bradley Wright, and Google is assisting to it

THE PRAGMATIC ENGINEERVia

Posts from X

Most Activity

VIEWS875LIKES20RETWEETS1REPLIES1

Florian Brand@xeophon

@GergelyOrosz Someone about to find out what a Streisand effect is

Gergely Orosz@GergelyOrosz

Google removed my article about the shameful collapse of events tech company Pollen (employees lied to by CEO Callum Negus-Fancey, salaries unpaid, a seemingly deliberate $3.2M customer double charge manually initiated by CTO Brad Wright).

Google decied that "Ellie Piee" claiming to live in this uninhabited island (the Bouvet Islands, zero inhabitants) claiming that my article is the exact copy of a 1998 New Yorker article (not even a sentence shared!) is credible evidence to remove my investigation about Pollen from its search results.

I wrote up a new article about it: https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/pollen-tried-to-remove-my-article-about-callum-negus-fancey-and-google-is-assisting-to-it/

2h875200

Gergely Orosz@GergelyOrosz

@stevencheng And Google just accepts it, just like that.

Also the claim that my article is an exact copy of this 1998 New York Post article https://nypost.com/1999/01/01/band-leader-hits-winning-chord lol

2h2745

Kumar Mettu@kumarlastapp

@GergelyOrosz Google is simply following DMCA as written. I don't think they have an option. Simply file counter and content should be back in 2 weeks. A competitor filed DMCA on our Android App during peak holiday season 15 years back. Intent was to keep our app away during holiday season.

2h3214

Steven Cheng@stevencheng

@GergelyOrosz Bouvet Island? That is some next level absurdity for a takedown request.

2h4152

Gergely Orosz@GergelyOrosz

@kumarlastapp Then DMCA is broken. How is it possible to:

1. File as claiming to be a resident of a territory with zero residents

2. File claiming that my article is the copy of another article when the two share not even a single sentence, zero similarity in any way

2h1636

Wes Eklund@WesEklund

@GergelyOrosz 'removed' ? what do you mean

2h184

Rahul Sharma@rahulsharma_20

@WesEklund @GergelyOrosz Removed from google search index afaik

2h162

Nick@vandycknick

@GergelyOrosz Always find these actions very interest, the act of trying to bury it, brings it back into the spotlight. Read your original article, can remember it was a good read. But honestly I had totally forgotten about it!

2h1641

Jacob Centner@JacobCentner

@GergelyOrosz I wonder if an LLM sanity check on these takedowns could reduce error/fraud rate

2h99

Vilnacron@LynnA39927613

@GergelyOrosz @kumarlastapp Yes the DCMA is absurdly broken.

2h32

Siddhesh@siddhesh_asawa

@GergelyOrosz Pro tip- once you file a counter suite, also submit one on bing webmaster.

From someone who has replied to 100s of fake ones.

2h30

Walter H González@walter_h_g_

@GergelyOrosz This is insane. Google's process is pure bs.

2h29

Arjuna Anand@arjunaaqa

@GergelyOrosz this is indeed shameful @Google

2h25

Xavier Rubio Jansana@teknik_codes

@GergelyOrosz @stevencheng Makes sense. Web was still in diapers, Pollen was not even a thing, but the NY Post reporter took a time machine to inform about a company from the future.

2h8

⍼ John Nicholson ⍼@Lost_Signal

@xeophon @GergelyOrosz What would disgraced, potentially criminal CEO Callum Negus-Fancey, find out?

Why would these tweets come up in an LLM of someone finding out if the should invest in him?

2h7

Wes Eklund@WesEklund

@rahulsharma_20 @GergelyOrosz ah I see

2h3

Julien Active@Julien4Future

@GergelyOrosz Quite a system if Bouvet Island can memory-hole factual reporting.

2h2

nitesh ⟲@theniteshdev

@GergelyOrosz This is a textbook example of how the DMCA process is being weaponized to suppress legitimate investigative journalism. It’s incredibly alarming that a faceless claim from an uninhabited location was enough to trigger a search removal.

2h1

Yurii Koganov@Koganovdp

@GergelyOrosz The digital world is infinitely scalable, but infinitely fragile. Truth is much harder to delete when it is carved into something you can actually hold. 🪵

2h