While Google Support claims that my google account has ‘no penalties against it”. zero of my online reviews for local businesses are posted publicly any longer.
1 month ago this was not a problem. Today it’s a problem, and there is zero reason for it.
100% of my online reviews, which consist of both negative and positive reviews, have been effectively shadow banned.
What is the resolution for this censorship action?
If you want help spoting what you have been doing wrong, I will help you.
But you need an open mind to accept that it could be your fault.
Also, your profile is set to restricted. If you want help to spot what could be the cause, you need to change your privacy setting as explained here temporarily. It can also be done from a Desktop computer. Goto Your contributions, then Profile settings, then toggle Restricted profile.
Cheers
Morten
@Steve4255 please consider following @MortenCopenhagen ’ advice, we can’t help you unless you want help, please make your reviews and photos public and then perhaps you may get some guidance.
Hi Morton,
Can you see why the likes I received for my reviews are not counted towards my expert reviewer badge?
Terry PG,
Your response is confusing because it was not necessary.
Your statement: “We can only help if you want help” is obviously not necessary, since I have, in fact, made a post specifically requesting assistance
Your statement that I “Follow Morton’s advice” was equally not necessary.
Morten,
Done. Pls let me know what you find out.
It would seem unlikely that every single review that I have ever left is “my fault” for being shadow banned by Google Support, but yes - we are “Open Minded” here. Tell us what you see…
Please create a new thread if search does not give you an answer.
Also, check this issue:
Morten
I can respond to you, @LaurensH , but only because the reply may be relevant also on this thread, however @MortenCopenhagen is correct in inviting you to write your own post, so to have your real issue analyzed separately.
The number of likes in your Reviewer badge is low because most of your reviews are hidden by Google. I’m not surprised about it, because the content of several of your visible reviews is not original, and clearly sourced from contents found on the web.
For more details please tag us on your separate post. Thank you
Thanks for opening your profile, @Steve4255
Unfortunately, all I can see is that none of your contributions are public. And further more not even your profile picture, your name, your LG badge or your detailed contribution overview are public.
This is highly unusual. So I have no prior experience with this. And as none of your contributions are public I have no chance to predict what the problem could be.
I think the best option for you would be to try the appeals form found at
https://support.google.com/local-guides/contact/local_guides_appeal
This will result in an email sent to you. In there will likely be a tiny mention of what the issue is. So when you get the email please come back here and share the reply text.
It would be very helpful if you would use the tagging tool when replying to someone here on Connect. Type @ followed by the username. Type slowly. Then we get an e-mail notification and you are more likely to get a prompt reply. Just hitting Reply does not ensure we get notified by email.
Sorry I could not help you any better
Morten
Morten,
Thanks for confirming my initial assumption that Google Support has effectively shadow banned 100% of my reviews for no apparent reason.
I’ll initiate the appeal that you suggested.
You are welcome.
Just for the record
Shadowban is not a real thing. We can see contributions being taken down = hidden from public view. And a block can be placed on your account. This will prevent all or some types of contributions from going public.
Also, it is not Google Support that made or imposed the sanctions. The AI spam filter aka the moderation system did this.
I’m mentioning this because you used the term shadowban several times.
Cheers
Morten
One more comment. I did not confirm that your reviews were taken down for no good reason. The review guidelines are elaborate and very few Local Guides have the nessesarly knowledge to make this determination.
When a user gets hit with severe sanctions there is almost always a good reason.
I know this from having helped hundred+ suspended local guides.
Cheers
Morten
Thanks for the additional comments.
I believe ”Shadow Banning” is simply what you described, wherein Google unilaterally blocks reviews, fails to inform the user that the reviews have been blocked, and fails to inform the user why the reviews were blocked, while also masking the whole issue by making the blocked reviews “appear” to be union-blocked to the user while he user is logged in to his/her Google account.
This is Shadow Banning - it’s a real thing and Google does it with great ease.
As for my comment about a “reason” for the Shadow Ban of my personal reviews / I believe what I said was that there was not “A” reason for it. Meaning, “A” reason was never provided (at least not yet”. Where Google has a “Good” reason is likely very subjective, and in the favor of Google’s own interests and likely the business’ interests who likely complained of my negative reviews.
Hello there Morten, do you have an email address I can contact you on?
Hi Morten,
I have received a reply from Google Support in response to my Appeal, which I have pasted directly below. Please note that the response is identical, word for word, to the prior response I received from Google Support when asking them to look into why my reviews were being Shadow Banned initially (before I posted anything on this forum)
——————————————————-
Hello,
Thank you for contacting Google support. Based on the information provided, we are happy to confirm that there are no penalties against your account. Please log in on Connect in order to get full access to the forum and all the benefits of our community.
If you have any further questions please consult the Local Guides Help Center.
Thanks,
Google support
This confirms that you are not suspended. We knew that! But it was worth a try because if there was an issue we would have had new information about whether the problem was related to edits, reviews, or photos.
Your public profile still looks like this:
So my usual tools to help are not even available here. Normally, a few public reviews gives usable hints as to what the problem is. But your profile shows nothing.
@ErmesT how do you see interpret this empty profile?
A next step could be to have you share 3 screenshots from your photo contribution list. And 3 screenshots of your latest reviews and 1 screenshot of your detailed contribution overview.
Please do that.
Cheers
Morten
Hi Morten,
Screenshots are attached, 4 in total. I have zero photos to upload, I have no reviews with photos.
Hi @MortenCopenhagen , @Steve4255
This is what I see in this very moment:
And this
It means that you can write reviews , but only your last review was accepted, while all the previous reviews were made private.
So no penalties against you, but simply an action by the AI for hiding individuals reviews that were found inappropriate.
You can check your reviews and try to edit them or, of you think that the reviews are following the rules, you can use the form shared in this post to ask for a check: An update on how we moderate Google Maps reviews
An operator will check the reviews and release everything that is not against the rules. It may take times (up to 8 weeks in my last appeal) but it works
Some observations:
You posted 2 negative reviews of 2 branches of a gym. Both started with the same sentence. I believe this could trigger the spam filters. Also, this raises the question if you could have some relation to this industry that would make your reviews border on conflicts if interest.
Secondly you have only made 9 reviews. Young profiles with few contribution are less trust worthy when it comes to spam. Did you create a new profile?
Thirdly, one if your reviews contain accusations the are not based on your first hand experience with visiting business. You language is very disrespectful. I would expect Google will take it down if not based on the spam filter then certainly should the business owner request Google Maps to do so.
You can try the form suggested by @ErmesT but you own critical revision of your reviews to comply with the guidelines is likely more effective.
Best of luck
Morten
