Vanished from the index of Google, Bing and Linkedin a rebuttal of an anti-net neutrality paper

What if something can't be found through Google Search? Does it still exist? That question I have to ask myself when I found that a blogpost I wrote two years ago can't be found anymore through either Google or Bing, though it is still listed on Brave. A LinkedIn post where I refer to the blogpost was also made inaccessible, even though Bing can still find that it exists and it can be partially read when browsing anonymously. 

Given that it was delisted from 2 search engines and removed from LinkedIn, I suspect it's not just "death by algorithm". It appears someone asked for its removal from the search index and from LinkedIn. Who it was; staunch anti-net neutrality advocates, the publisher, authors or someone else, I don't know. What I do want to understand is: 

•  How could someone file such a request?

• Are there any records of such requests?

• How could I as the author know of such requests? Should I have been informed?

• How can I get my article added to the public record? 

Debunking an anti-netneutrality study by four economists 

My blogpost debunks an anti-net neutrality study by four academic economists. The anti-net neutrality study claims that net neutrality leads to 25% less investment in fiber broadband. It used to be that when someone searched for the academic paper (eg “Briglauer net neutrality OECD broadband”)  that my post on Medium was the fifth or sixth result. The LinkedIn article would also pop up in the search results. 

The academic article is cited by telecom lobbyists in the USA and UK as proof net neutrality is bad. However, the US FCC and Ofcom both dismissed the conclusions of the article on the effects. This shows I'm not alone in my criticism of the article. Anyone who tries to verify the claims used to be able to find my debunking of it too and make up their own mind. Now neither my Medium article nor my LinkedIn post can be found through Bing, Google or Linkedin. My Medium post still exists on the Internet, but it isn’t indexed and so it is unfindable. You would have to know that it exists and where I posted it, or otherwise you won't find it, same as the LinkedIn: 

• The original posted to Medium is here: Updated: Request for retraction of “Net neutrality and high-speed broadband networks: evidence from OECD countries”, by Wolfgang Briglauer, Carlo Cambini, Klaus Gugler & Volker Stocker, Rudolf van der Berg, Nov 17, 2022 https://medium.com/@rudolfvanderberg/request-for-retraction-of-netneutrality-and-high-speed-broadband-networks-evidence-from-oecd-d33ce2f8b749 a backup is now at: my old blog on blogspot

• The LinkedIn article that I wrote about it, used to be at: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rudolfvanderberg_request-for-retraction-of-netneutrality-activity-6998827449144778752-Y254/ This one is now inaccessible. 

• The academic paper is at: Net neutrality and high-speed broadband networks: evidence from OECD countries | European Journal of Law and Economics

Examples of how the article has become unfindable 

• The article on LinkedIn now only shows that the post can't be displayed. I received no notification, no request to change my tone or any other indication that the post isn't visible anymore.  

• When browsing anonymously/incognito, the Linkedin piece is still kind of visible: 
  
  
  
  
  
• Google will tell me to "Go Fish" if I search my blog for the author's names or unique words, such as the author's names, Ofcom or Australia https://www.google.com/search?q=Ofcom+site%3Arudolfvanderberg.medium.com  

• If I search for https://www.bing.com/search?q=net%20neutrality%20briglauer%20oecd%20retraction%20request I only get links to the LinkedIn article, but no reference to the post at rudolfvanderberg.medium.com. If I then click those links, the result is the same blocked page as above

• https://www.google.com/search?q=net+neutrality+site%3Arudolfvanderberg.medium.com only returns the root, but not the specific article. If you search for Squid Game, it does return the specific article.  

• Brave does still show the article on the first page, which is how it used to appear in Google and Bing Search too! https://search.brave.com/search?q=net+neutrality+broadband+OECD+briglauer : 

  

Conclusion

Being able to find things through search engines is essential for the public discourse on contentious subjects, such as net neutrality. If a rebuttal can be made to disappear from indices of search engines and removed from social media sites such as LinkedIn, then what does this do for our open society? I'm generally a techno-optimist, but this is a gloomy prospect.