Google's Blogger locks hundreds of legitimate sites in mass false-positive sweep

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, settings and themes, and face permanent deletion within three months if they do not 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 woke up this month to find their sites frozen. The reason given: they had supposedly violated Google's rules against hosting malware, meaning harmful software that can infect visitors.

The blogs, by all accounts, did nothing of the sort.

The wave of lockouts started on August 4, first reported by BleepingComputer, and hit legitimate publishers who host no malicious code. Some sites were not just locked but deleted outright.

What did affected users actually see?

A large red padlock in the Blogger dashboard, with a warning that the blog had been locked for violating community guidelines. Owners could no longer edit posts, change settings, adjust themes, or manage any part of the site.

Google's automated notice also warned that the blog could be permanently deleted within three months if the owner did not file an appeal. Some publishers told the Blogger forum 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 has not yet issued a public statement on the cause or the scale.

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.

What at-a-glance

What should affected bloggers do right now?

File the appeal through the "Request Review" button shown 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 would take the content with it.

If you have backups of your posts or exported content, keep them safe and do not rely on the platform alone. Where a blog earns income or hosts irreplaceable writing, consider mirroring it elsewhere while the appeal is pending.

Avoid editing the homepage or template of a restored blog until Google clarifies what is 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 the mess 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.