Google review censorship : antisemitic business owner's page allows hateful 5-star reviews while silencing legitimate 1-star criticism

Google Maps contribution stories
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Dear Google Team,

I’m writing to bring attention to a serious issue regarding censorship and bias in Google reviews, specifically concerning the TYROVOL PARK in France. The park’s manager recently refused entry to 150 young Israeli visitors based on his antisemitic convictions (links to articles: RFI / Evrimagaci). He is currently under police investigation for discrimination.

Here’s the issue:

  1. My 1-star review (and those of many others) criticizing this blatant discrimination was removed by Google, despite being a legitimate, fact-based critique of the business owner’s behavior.

  2. Meanwhile, 5-star reviews praising the manager’s antisemitic decision (“great owner, great decision”) remain published. Many of these reviews appear to be from people who have never visited the park, yet Google allows them to stay up.

My questions are:

  • Why are legitimate criticisms of discrimination being censored, while hateful supportive reviews are allowed to remain?

  • Does Google endorse a system where antisemitic praise is platformed while victims of discrimination are silenced?

  • Will Google remove the fake 5-star reviews from accounts that clearly never visited the park, and reinstate the censored 1-star reviews?

This isn’t just about one business—it’s about Google’s role in enabling or combating hate. I urge the Local Guides community and Google to address this double standard immediately. If Google’s review system can be weaponized to protect discriminatory businesses while silencing their critics, it’s a failure of the platform’s integrity.

This occurred on Friday, and all 5-star reviews since then are fake, only supporting the disgusting behavior of the owner (the park is currently closed during the investigation).

It reminds us of the darkest times in history when Jews were denied entry to public spaces in France and Europe. Is this what you’re supporting?

Link to this business: Google Maps

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Thank you for highlighting this issue, @Greg59140
I fully understand the dismay caused by racist attitudes, which I hope will be investigated in the appropriate forums and that the necessary measures will be taken by the relevant authorities.
But this in no way justifies the use of contributions on Google Maps to support or condemn such attitudes.
Contributions on Google Maps must be based on REAL experiences of the location and the services received. Google Maps is not a social media platform for political or other types of battles.

For this reason I will escalate it to the team, for removing ALL the review posted starting from August 21st, even if I am sure that the high number of reviews is already triggering the filter.

As you can read in Prohibited & restricted content - Maps User Generated Content Policy Help
“Contributions to Google Maps should reflect a genuine experience at a place or business.”
and also
“We don’t allow content that aims to destroy or damage the digital presence of a feature. This includes editing information about a place to make it inappropriate or low quality, as a prank or to express your social or political views.”

Google will most probably activate a posting restriction for that location.
To know more about this feature please read: Posting Restrictions - Maps User Generated Content Policy Help
“Posting may be turned off for a particular place for a short period of time to help protect the place or area from a spike in irrelevant or offensive content (for example, during a real-world event that attracts off-topic commentary on a particular place). We monitor the place and when we see the abuse attempts and the risk of policy-violating content subside, we lift the restrictions.”

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