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Slopwatch: Google News Promoting Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Oct 20, 2025

Bales of hay background black and white image

Fear-mongering/dramatisation of "Linux" dangers as mentioned this morning includes mentioning proof of concept (PoC) for something already patched months ago. Several slopfarms promoted by Google News did that last night. Today their sister slopfarm does the same, aided (propelled to the top) by Google News:

Slop or fake: PoC Released for Linux-PAM Vulnerability Enabling Local Root Privilege Escalation

And why won't Google News also bring up "Jia Tan" again? 18 months after a Microsoft employee made a big fuss about it, not too long after a social engineering attack in Microsoft's GitHub? Here they go again:

Slop or fake: XZ Utils Backdoor: Jia Tan’s SSH Threat to Linux Systems Exposed

This same slopfarm shows up everywhere in Google News today. For instance:

Slop or fake: GIMP Developers Take Control of Official Snap Package for Linux

Slop or fake: Best Practices for Safely Stopping Linux Threads

Slop or fake: Windows 10 Support Ends: Users Migrate to Linux Like Zorin OS for Privacy

What is the value of Google News if so many results in it are fake 'articles? █

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