Google's Blogger locks hundreds of legitimate sites in mass false-positive sweep
An automated policy flag hit blogs on August 4, cutting owners out of their dashboards and threatening permanent deletion in three months.
Key points
- Google began locking hundreds of Blogger sites on August 4, citing its Malware and Similar Malicious Content policy.
- A Blogger Product Expert on Google's official forum said the volume of reports points to misclassification by automated systems.
- Locked blog owners lose access to posts and settings, and face permanent deletion within three months if they don't appeal.
- The forum thread has drawn more than 300 "I have the same question" votes and over 100 replies from affected publishers.
- Some blogs have been restored on appeal, then locked again after edits to the homepage or template.
Hundreds of people who run blogs on Google's Blogger platform found their sites frozen this month. The reason given: supposedly hosting malware, meaning harmful software that can infect visitors.
They hadn't.
The lockouts began on August 4, first reported by BleepingComputer, hitting legitimate publishers who host no malicious code. Some sites weren't just locked but deleted outright.
What did affected users actually see?
A large red padlock appeared in the Blogger dashboard, warning that the blog had been locked for violating community guidelines. Owners could no longer edit posts, change settings or touch any part of the site.
Google's automated notice also warned that the blog could be permanently deleted within three months if no appeal was filed. Some publishers reported their sites were restored after appeal, only to be locked a second time after they updated the homepage or changed the template.
Is this really a false positive?
Yes, according to Google's own volunteer moderators. A Blogger Product Expert posted on the company's official help forum that the sheer number of identical reports coming in at once "suggests misclassification by automated systems," adding that false positives happen occasionally but "not on this scale."
The forum thread has drawn more than 300 votes from users saying they have the same problem, plus over 100 replies. Not every Blogger user is affected, and appeals are working for at least some of them.
Google hadn't issued a public statement on the cause or the scale as of publication. This is the kind of silence that makes it harder for affected publishers to know whether to wait or act, and right now the answer is clearly to act.
How many sites could be caught up in this?
Google has never published a figure for how many blogs Blogger hosts. Third-party trackers estimate the platform carries close to 200,000 active sites, so a wave affecting "hundreds" is a small slice but a painful one for the people running those sites.
We covered Google's own platform-policy moves most recently on 28 July, when its threat-intelligence team overhauled how it names hacking groups. That story and this one share a common thread: automated systems making consequential decisions with limited transparency about how or when they'll be corrected.
What at-a-glance
| Detail | What we know |
|---|---|
| Start of lockouts | August 4, 2025 |
| Reason cited | Malware and Similar Malicious Content policy |
| Forum thread votes | 300+ "same question" |
| Forum replies | 100+ from publishers |
| Deletion window | 3 months without appeal |
| Estimated Blogger sites | ~200,000 (third-party estimate) |
What should affected bloggers do right now?
File the appeal through the "Request Review" button on the locked dashboard, and do it quickly. The three-month clock runs from the moment the block appears, and permanent deletion after that window takes the content with it.
Keep backups of your posts and exported files somewhere off the platform. Where a blog earns income or hosts irreplaceable writing, mirror it elsewhere while the appeal is pending.
Avoid editing the homepage or template of a restored blog until Google clarifies what's triggering the second round of lockouts. Several publishers say those edits pushed their sites straight back into the locked state.
Common questions
Are visitors to a locked Blogger site at risk?
No. The lockouts are false positives, not confirmed malware findings, and Google has effectively taken the affected pages offline while it sorts things out.
Will Google restore deleted blogs automatically?
Not on current evidence. Restoration appears to require an appeal from the site owner, which is why the three-month window matters.
