I don’t understand what Google’s issue is with my account lately. Recently they took down a 6 yr old review I made of Tivoli Gardens in Denmark. This review was made 6 years ago. They claim it apparently has to do with violations on my account, but when I went to appeal it, it states that there are no violations on my account to appeal.
Is anyone else having this issue? If so, how do I flag it with Google? I barely make reviews as is, only using Maps for directions now and to save places, so for them to come after me for reviews I made 6 years ago is…very concerning.
Hi @babyfroz , I am sorry about your situation. I tried to see your Google Maps profile. Unfortunately it is restricted. You said your 6 y old review was taken down, is the POI also taken down?
Hello @babyfroz, would exactly do you mean by “… Recently they took down a 6 yr old review …”?
Did you get an email saying “Your review wasn’t published”? If so, this happens if the listing was deleted (not only permanently closed) and is not a result of restrictions regarding your account.
If instead, you realized a review is still visible for you under My Contributions, but not to the public, it means it was hidden by the SPAM filter, which can also happen long after posting it.
But there is something else which puzzles me. When I click on your name, I get:
This means not only we cannot see your Maps profile (which would be helpful to answer your question), but also your profile for Local Guides Connect is hidden.
Asking @ErmesT: Any ideas?
The review was made 6yrs ago, and they only chose now to delete it.
Yes, I got that email.
Here is the listing, it seems only my review was taken down: Google Maps
I don’t understand why my Maps profile is hidden, but when I go on it, all of my European reviews have been taken down, which is weird, because I live in Europe??
I also did not hide my LGC profile, I would not do that under most circumstances…
@babyfroz The fact that your account is not restricted means that you can potentially write reviews, even if the screenshot shared by you says another story.
Are you sure that only your reviews in Europe are taken down?
We are notified about that ONLY for reviews related to locations inside the EU, because Google has to comply with a law of the European Union, and we don’t receive any notification about reviews made private in other locations.
So the only way to know how many of your reviews are visible is to check your account in Google Maps in an incognito window (or sharing a link to your Google Maps profile here).
Regarding the visibility of your profile in connect, please uncheck this checkbox to make it visible
Sorry for the late reply, @babyfroz
The one you shared is a link to an hidden review. But from there I was able to reach your profile: Google Maps
Yes, 220 of your 221 reviews are hidden, and 91 of your photos are hidden to.
A review is made hidden if the text of the attached photos are found to be against the Policies
Considering that you only have 91 private photos we can say that most of your reviews (if not all) are made private because of the text.
Of course the AI can make a Mistake, and for this reason inside the EU we can normally appeal for every single review, or at least we will have an explanation about the reason why the review isn’t posted.
As an example, in the screenshot shared withe us the message is “Unfortunately, we’re not able to publish this content at this time”
By clicking of “Details” you should have more information about the reason why Google isn’t able to publish that review. Do you mind to share a screenshot of the “Details” with us.
Normally, if the reason of not posting a review is related to the text you also have the possibility to appeal, for having that review checked and possibly reinstated.
Don’t you have that option?
As I said already, this feature is only for reviews related to places located inside the EU, so I am asking again:
In this case, the AI definitely made a mistake. Only the European reviews have been hidden. And i’ve already appealed this, but have heard nothing back from Google as yet. I made the appeal in December!
I’ve attached screens from the details section. I’ve also made my Connect profile public so you can see my post history.
@ErmesT this is one of the reviews that was taken down. I had attached a picture, which was just a pic of the front of Tivoli Gardens.
What exactly was so wrong with this review that it had to be taken down?
Well, I don’t honestly see anything wrong in the review itself, and according to the message shared by you the review was taken down because your account was restricted.
In fact 220 of your reviews were taken down (only one is visible). Were all taken down with the same motivation (“access to some features is restricted.”)?
As you said that
you should have that message for every single review.
I agree with you that there is something weird in that message because you showed to us that you have no restrictions.
Have you tried to appeal for all your reviews in one shot?
If not you can do it by using the form available at the end of this topic: An update on how we moderate Google Maps reviews
Please be aware that the check may take a couple of months, and the team will not respond / contact you. They will simply release everything that is not against the policies
