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Google Search Results Listings Can Be Manipulated For Propaganda (zdnet.com)

A feature of the Google search engine lets threat actors alter search results in a way that could be used to push political propaganda, oppressive views, or promote fake news. From a report: The feature is known as the "knowledge panel" and is a box that usually appears at the right side of the search results, usually highlighting the main search result for a very specific query. For example, searching for Barack Obama would bring a box showing information from Barack Obama's Wikipedia page, along with links to the former president's social media profiles. But Wietze Beukema, a member of PwC's Cyber Threat Detection & Response team, has discovered that you can hijack these knowledge panels and add them to any search query, sometimes in a way that pushes legitimate search results way down the page, highlighting an incorrect result and making it look legitimate. The way this can be done is by first searching for a legitimate item, and pressing the "share" icon that appears inside a knowledge panel.

44 comments

  1. Congratulations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You "discovered" SEO.

    1. Re: Congratulations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Film at 11

    2. Re: Congratulations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No doubt. Does a single millennial anywhere realize that they and the earth were not created on the same day?

    3. Re: Congratulations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you noticed that for millenniums some older people, for all kinds of reasons, think they're better than the young.

  2. Mostly by Google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's a design thing.

  3. Google bombs have been a thing for a decade. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    More than a decade, even!
    Captcha: gurgle.
    Heh.

    1. Re: Google bombs have been a thing for a decade. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Outstanding
      I tried this by querying me home city of Dublin, then Ulster, then Limerick. 100% spot on. Thar she blows!

    2. Re: Google bombs have been a thing for a decade. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about this?
      There once was a fella with curls
      Who pointed at pictures of girls
      He shouted out arrrgh!
      I would hit that but hard
      But the exercise just made him hurl

  4. IMS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My shock, imagine it.

  5. I came for the news. by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 2

    Didn't see any here, but stayed for the comments anyway.

  6. Sweet! by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    This has to be the ultimate trolling tool, going to be seeing this used a ton!

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Sweet! by Rei · · Score: 1

      I'm loving this. Why say something yourself when you can make Google assert it as a fact for you? ;)

      --
      Musk needs a safer hobby than Twitter. Fire juggling? Cage fighting? Solo hot air balloon trips?
  7. DDG by fbobraga · · Score: 1

    FTW!

    1. Re:DDG by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      DDG will become as bad as Google if it's allowed to grow. Its founder already has no problems lying about your anonymity and monetizes your data

    2. Re:DDG by recrudescence · · Score: 1

      DDG will become as bad as Google if it's allowed to grow. Its founder already has no problems lying about your anonymity and monetizes your data

      Please elaborate; otherwise it just sounds like a generic shill statement. It is no secret that DDG relies on 'data' from users in the broader sense (it *is* a search query engine). But that is a far cry from implying it does so in a way that is personally invasive like google.

  8. This is truly an important discovery by forkfail · · Score: 1

    By publicizing this incredibly important discovery, the path is made clear for accusations of election meddling and haxoring!

    Super important security discovery. I expect to see it trend on twitter soon, it's so revolutionary and novel and significant. And ominous. Definitely ominous.

    --
    Check your premises.
  9. Not as bad as it was. Bing still horrible. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It was a lot worse not that long ago. Searching for Hillary would bring up nothing but Trump's claims. Bing, my god, might as well just install malware on your device.

  10. Re: /. Submissions can be manipulated for propogan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    People forget this.... Obama internet team were praised, no one said anything about manipulation of election interference.

    Of course when it went the other way, it had to be interference, because no one could possibly have chosen to actually vote for trump, as he was 50pts behind.

  11. Re:/. Submissions can be manipulated for propogand by nwaack · · Score: 1, Troll

    Despite the last sentence being an obvious troll, the rest of this is pretty spot on. When Obama and his minions took advantage of the internet to help win the election, he was declared a super-genius for doing so and most of the left would've happily felaciated the internet if it were a physical being. But as soon as Trump won...ORANGE MAN BAD, so INTERNET BAD TOO!!!

  12. Wrong Department by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why is this posted to the closer-look department when it should be posted to the duh-no-fucking-shit department?

  13. Chuckle by nehumanuscrede · · Score: 1

    Not necessarily news for the Slashdot crowd, but the people running this country really don't have a clue and might actually be surprised at such things.

    See: Series of Tubes as an example.

    1. Re:Chuckle by SuricouRaven · · Score: 3, Informative

      Law and politics are long-term careers. To reach the top takes decades of career advancement - which means the people who occupy them now generally grew up in a time when computer technology was known to the public only as sci-fi movie props showing spinning tape drives and rampaging robots. That they understand technology today at all is a sign of impressive adaptability, given how rapidly it has advanced. The IBM PC is less than fourty years old, and internet access has been available to the public at large for less than thirty. When the first provider started making access to Usenet available to anyone with money and a modem, John McCain was already 56.

  14. Google fiddles with results, go figure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I see far more marketing results and suspicious bad web sites being shown multiple times. But obviously the 2016 election taught me to distrust Google's analytics that claim to be unbiased. I don't believe it for a second, and its why for certain subjects I seek out other search engines for a second series of results to compare. I'm at a point where DuckDuckGo is looking more unbiased and provides better results.

    1. Re:Google fiddles with results, go figure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I start with the Duck and only rarely opt for the G

  15. I know. I've done it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Didn't realize this was a new thing.

  16. Miserable failure by spaceyhackerlady · · Score: 1

    People have been gaming Google for ages. Remember "miserable failure"? Remember the fake 404 page for "weapons of mass destruction"?

    ...laura

    1. Re:Miserable failure by SvnLyrBrto · · Score: 1

      Also: "more evil than satan himself", "French military victories", and "Santorum".

      BFD.

      As you say, screwing with search results has been possible since forever; and was never limited just to Google either. All it takes is a number of like-minded pissed-off people, and you can turn a bigot into a frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter.

      --
      Imagine all the people...
    2. Re:Miserable failure by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      That's alright, Google has been gaming people for a long time, especially since the Alphabet era. Google search results are already manipulated for propaganda purposes, easier just to https://duckduckgo.com/?q=duck....

      This story strikes me as a redundant story from the department of redundancy, seemingly to distract from Google directly politicising search results, youtube is particularly bad, which now loves US corporate main stream news to the exclusion of all else.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  17. Stupid hypocrite liberals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Obama does it = "He's a genius! What an amazing human being! Give that man a Nobel Peach Prize."

    Trump does it = "What a scumbag! We must get rid of the internet! ORANGE MAN BAD!"

    Please, all this whining is just liberals doing what they do best, double standards and hypocrisy.

  18. This is interesting, why the hate? by Paxtez · · Score: 4, Interesting

    At first I thought this was about SEOs or something, but it is a legit attack/bug/thing. I've never seen anyone post about this issue before.
    This just allows you to attach any info panel to any search result. So you could make one:
    "Where was Obama Born" and have it show a full width info box about the planet Mars. Which definitely makes it seem that Google says he was born on Mars.
    https://www.google.com/search?...

    This would be good for businesses too. Make a URL for "What is the best restaurant in Chicago" with the info panel for you business, and put that link on your site.

    This will totally get fixed. I guess it will bet set that if you go to a url with a search and info panel, ensure that the info panel would display with that search.

  19. Google results are propaganda by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No manipulation required.

  20. I think Rick Santorum already knew this by almostadnsguy · · Score: 1

    Didn't anyone hear about this before? http://www.spreadingsantorum.c... If you know how it works of course you can "manipulate" it. How is this news?

  21. Re:/. Submissions can be manipulated for propogand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why is this -1? +5 informative, you dolts.

  22. "oppressive views"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    New speak is the BEST!

  23. Fascinating by farble1670 · · Score: 1

    You know what else you can do? You make make a search for bacon return data about eggs, or make a search for Obama return results only from fox.com.

    Fascinating.

    1. Re:Fascinating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know what else you can do? You make make a search for bacon return data about eggs, or make a search for Obama return results only from fox.com.

      Now add something without putting it in the search box, you smart-ass know it all.

  24. Re: /. Submissions can be manipulated for propoga by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Was digging through some old newspaper microfische and was rather shocked to discover that Dewey defeated Truman.

  25. Re:/. Submissions can be manipulated for propogand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Trump is a traitor and obvious fraud, none of what you said has any actual bearing on that. Trump will die in Federal prison and be buried under it. Enjoy.

  26. THERE ARE ALWAYS CONSEQUENCES NAZI FAGGOT KEN DOLL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    THERE WILL ALWAYS BE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR LIES AND PROPAGANDA NAZI FAGGOT KEN DOLL

    Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING. Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.

  27. Slashdot is loosing its readership by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    because slashdot can be manipulated for propaganda.

  28. Re:/. Submissions can be manipulated for propogand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Stupid, sad little liberals with your tiny, angry brains. Can't handle the truth so you mod parent down. You morons make me sick.

  29. Re:/. Submissions can be manipulated for propogand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's -1 because liberals have tiny NPC brains and can't reason. All that bounces around their heads is OBAMA GOOD!!!! ORANGE MAN BAD!!!! It's sad, really. They walk around thinking they're so smart and that their crap doesn't stink, when the rest of us thinking humans know it's really just the opposite.