Google maps should change its European policy. Yes, as someone who knows how nice and useful it is to comment on maps, I love to comment on everywhere I go and share it with people. But unfortunately, especially since the summer of 2023, many hotels, restaurants and historical points I have visited in Europe. I cannot comment. As someone who knows the comment rules, unfortunately my comment is immediately marked as unpublishable even though I have not violated any rules. This has caused a great loss of motivation for me. It is very sad not to comment when there are dozens of places where I can comment. I am calling out to dear Google moderators from here, this is what is happening in some countries in Europe. I want to say that they need to find a solution to the annoying situation.
I doubt the issue is isolated to Europe. It is correct that EU has made Google Maps offer options to appeal the hiding of contributions. And they are required to inform users when contributions are taken down. But I believe the same spam filters are used globally.
Keep in mind that what trigger the spam filter might not be in the review text itself. Try deleting the attached photos and check if your review goes public. If so, try adding the photos back one by one and keep checking. This way you can figure out which photo was the culprit.
Furthermore, the spam filter looks at your overall performance and track record as a local guide. So completely unrelated violations can also cause reviews to be removed from public view and block new reviews.
I know from experience that accepting that we might have followed all the guidelines is not a pleasant process. Honestly, there are so many detailed and not widely published guidelines that it is very complicated not to miss some of them.
Hi @MortenCopenhagen I cannot agree with you on this issue because comments are allowed in certain countries in Europe, for example, comments are published in the Netherlands and Luxembourg, while in France, at some points, comments become spam without even being reviewed. and I have been a local guide for many years so I know what situations can go wrong. I am very careful about my sentences and photos, especially that there are no other people in the photos. I even saw that among the comments, people shared their selfies and the comment was approved, but while my comment complies with all the rules, my comment is directly eliminated. There was a correspondence with you this summer about this and nothing has changed. Isn’t it interesting that it is said that the comment is removed as soon as the comment is shared, even though there is no rule violation in any of the comments? I think Google needs to improve itself in certain European countries and state why the comment was removed.
@MortenCopenhagen I am absolutely sure that it is not about me. Because if there were any restrictions regarding my profile or if I was someone who commented wrongly, my other reviews would not be published. Moreover, we cannot object to what was done as the reason for not being published. I am sharing the answer given by Google with you. What happened?
This place is now more likely to receive content that violates Google policies. Google has disabled the publishing feature as a precaution. Is Disneyland an illegal content? I am also attaching a photo of the unpublished content below. Neither the text nor the photo violates any rules.
Let me tell you @Gezendunyali that it is not only Europe. I am struggling with it too here in Argentina, and Morten is a witness. I had to rewrite the reviews taking words like “bad”, “worst”, etc. And even delete some pictures.
Thank you for your comment @Lukelhm . I have been commenting as a local guide for about 8 years and I know the rules very well. If I were doing something wrong, my comments and posts so far would be deleted. I would like to insist that I use Google Map in some countries - I last lived in France - you should look at the comments and photos. It is taken down instantly. I am just stating a glitch that occurred.
I have been facing the same problem for a month. Any review I put for any location in Europe gets immediately unpublished, and I have to submit an appeal, which usually takes a day or two, and then it will be approved. Outside Europe, it never gets flagged.
Outside the EU reviews are also taken down, and users are not notified and not options to appeal are available. So I strongly believe that Maps in the EU is more user-friendly than else where.
But I agree that the AI filter globally should learn more and more quickly to prevent the issue of too many reviews being taken down incorrectly.
