Skip to main content

An unlikely hack lands Edward Snowden in the White House

An unlikely hack lands Edward Snowden in the White House

/

Google Maps lists 'Edwards Snow Den' shop at home of the president

Share this story

After turning up as a sculpture in Brooklyn Park and making an appearance on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Edward Snowden has finally returned home. In fact, if you look at Google Maps right now, it appears he's marched all the way to the president's office, presumably to find out exactly who has copies of his dick pics.

In its mobile app and on desktop, Google is showing a business listing for a fake shop named "Edwards Snow Den" slap bang in the middle of The White House. Could this be the search giant's way of suggesting a rapprochement between the US administration and the famed whistle blower? Unfortunately not: the out-of-place Snow Den is simply the result of someone changing the location of a verified business listing after it's gone live on Google Maps.

A screenshot from Google Maps showing "Edwards Snow Den" and "cCross law firm" in the White House. (Google Maps)

The search giant confirmed as much to Marketing Land, who first reported the goof, and added that Google had removed the listing. However, when we scooted over to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to take a look for ourselves, we found Edwards Snow Den (a snowboarding shop, according to its Google Plus page) still open for business. However, while Marketing Land reported that it was a verified business, this no longer seems to be the case, suggesting that Google is working hard on deleting Snowden from the White House.

This sort of location squatting seems to be a bit of a problem for Google Maps. In addition to the Edward Snowden shop, there is also one "cCross law firm" that's listed as located in the West Wing. And a couple of hundred meters to the east, the US Department of the Treasury is showing that it's home to "freddy frazbear's pizza" — a typoed version of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, the fictional setting of indie horror game Five Nights at Freddy's.