Pollen (CEO Negus-Fancey, CTO Wright) tried to remove article, and Google helped
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
A blogger shows Google removed his article about Pollen's collapse after a fake DMCA claim from an uninhabited island.
Gergely Orosz wrote in 2022 about events startup Pollen's collapse-unpaid wages, missing pensions, a $3.2M customer double-charge. Four years later, someone filed a bogus DMCA takedown claiming his article copied a 1998 New York Post piece. The filer used a fake name and listed Bouvet Island, an uninhabited Norwegian territory, as their location. Google removed the article from search results. Orosz speculates Pollen or its executives hired reputation-management firms. A California lawsuit against Pollen and executives Callum Negus-Fancey, Liam Negus-Fancey, and James Ellis over unpaid wages is ongoing.
What commenters are saying
Commenters agree this is a known abuse of copyright takedown systems, which Google handles with little verification to maintain safe harbor. Several note the DMCA's perjury penalty is never enforced. Two related points emerge: the filer gains an advantage by forcing the target to dox themselves when challenging, and the Streisand effect is already boosting the article. A few connect the Negus-Fancey surname to music industry figures and the Epstein files.
A minority argue the solution requires court orders or identity verification, but others counter that courts are slow and the existing law, if enforced, would suffice.