As rational, justifiable distrust rises in the land, a dart recently flew into my in-box. This one came out of nowhere. Well, out of my curiosity first, and then Google. Years ago, when I Google searched the exact phrase "Dissident Politics" this blog came up in the top three hits on the first page. Out of curiosity, I recently asked Perplexity why, when I search "Dissident Politics" now, it doesn't show up in the top 13 pages (130 hits), or at all as far as I can tell.
After that, things went to hell.
Perplexity listed a slew of things that could knock me out of Google search results. I understood basically none of it. But one thing that popped up was that I needed to look at the Google Search Console, whatever that is. Not knowing what it was or how to access it, Perp told me how to get there. So I did.
That's when I found that Google was blocking all of my blog pages from Google searches because of alleged phishing malware buried somewhere in my blog.
Perp tole me how to find web sites that would scan my blog and find the malware. I did two scans at two different sites. Neither found anything wrong. I then told Perp to scan my entire blog from the first post in 2015 until now. It found nothing alarming, stating that my blog doesn't raise any red flags, e.g., no malicious ads, not violent content, etc..
Then things got very complicated, and I got very confused. It's a very long, very complex story. I checked to see when I installed Disqus on my blog. That happened in 2019, about two years after Disqus changed its install software to eliminate a security issue that Google could have flagged as phishing malware. So Disqus, the only thing external to Google I have installed on my blog was not the issue.
So then I went to the Google Search Console to root around for answers. All the info it gave was incomprehensible to me. It would refer to computer thing X, but when I asked what X was, I was referred to Y, and when I asked what Y was, I was referred to Z, and when I asked what Z was it referred to A, . . . . . and so on, endlessly as far as I could tell. I was in a doom loop of computer gobbeldygook, none of which I understood.
Then, this morning I found an email from Google with an ominous threat, none of which I understood.
So I clicked on the Open Indexing Report Button. I got this:
As far as I can tell, Google blocks
all of my blog pages from its search engine results
Well, that being as clear as mud, I went back to Perp. Things got more complicated real quick. Perp explained that Google is saying it can’t index my blog pages because I need to alternate pages with proper canonical tags. In Blogger, not WordPress, what is a proper canonical tag and what does alternate pages mean? The canonical tag is this in HTML language:
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'><link expr:href='data:blog.canonicalUrl' rel='canonical'/></b:if><b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "index"'><link expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl' rel='canonical'/></b:if>
Well, you know. Clear as mud. But at least I know how to insert that code into my blog. That is how I installed Disqus in 2019. But If I do insert that code, I don't know if it will blow the whole blog up, and if it does, whether I can fix it by deleting the code.
A huge issue that Perp mentioned is Google's Blogger rules. If a blogger violates one or more Blogger rules, and Google chooses, it can delete an entire blog without telling the blog owner why. I asked what the killer rules are so I could see if I was violating any.
Two that popped up and scared me were (i) fair use doctrine under copyright law, and (ii) "deceptive content". I studied fair use in law school and several professional legal education meetings. I had a reasonably good understanding of the legal doctrine. Fair use allows someone like me to copy copyrighted content from other places, e.g., the NYT, WaPo, The Hill, etc. Does my use fall under fair use doctrine? Hard to tell. Deceptive content, impossible to tell.
What about "deceptive content" in politics? Perp tried valiantly to explain it, but it was clear that the concept is subjective. Perp and I were locked in intractable disagreement.
Here's the problem with fair use. The analysis is complex and has significant subjectivity in it. My blog has indicators of fair use, e.g., (i) I do not allow ads and thus make zero money from the content I copy and paste, (ii) I use the copied material to inform and educate, (iii) I often add my own original commentary, and (iv) my blog is too small to cause any economic damage to the sites I copy material from. Those are major indicators that what I copy is fair use. But some of what I do copies a fair amount of material, arguably copying the "heart" of copied content. That edges close to or beyond the limits of fair use. The legal call based on all the factors is more subjective than objective.
So now here I sit, unsure of what to do. In these times of MAGA thuggery and sleaze, it is easy to see some MAGA thug doing a wink, wink, nudge, nudge with Google and my entire blog instantly disappearing with no reason given. On the other hand, if I abandon Dissident Politics and try to be even more conservative about not running afoul of one or more of Google's killer rules, the same thing could still happen.
I'm inclined to stick with this blog, but if it disappears, you'll know why.
We live in exciting times for sure!
