For a while now (over 3 months), my Maps reviews are being Auto-hidden (not posted) with Google saying that I broke the policy of “fake engagement” even though my reviews are of actual locations that I visited in person or done business with them in some other way like home service. I want to say that my reviews range from 2 to 5 stars so it’s not that kind of fake engagement where I give 5 star in line or 1 star in line to any business. I have also written useful details in my reviews. I believe this all started a while ago when I left a 1star review to a restaurant that I visited and which had very high prices and poor conditions (old tables, hot outside and cold inside, long waiting time etc). Probably someone reported that review and since then the AI harasses me by not posting my reviews. I tried to appeal individually and while sometimes it goes through and are accepted, most of the times the AI auto-cancels my appeals saying “Your appeal has been rejected because your review is not posted” (?!?!). Anyway I find this very unfair for me, and I would like for someone of higher level to have a look over my profile.
Hi @AndreyRlz
thank you for asking.
As you said that
I think you should also have a link for submitting an appeal, because that message is released only for reviews about places that are inside the EU, and the appeal is normally available.
Generally speaking I can say that the 341 visible reviews are fine, but I cannot comment in the 3874 that are not publicly visible.
Have you appealed for some of them? What was the feedback?
However I am also a bit worried about the photos you posted, with a lot of duplicates and a serious redundancy. Some of them are posted in two different places, and this is a serious violation too
In addition I want to inform you that I changed the category of your post to Google Maps tips & tricks - Local Guides Connect, where it fits better
CÓ THỂ BẠN CẦN BIẾT
Google cho biết chi tiết cách xây dựng hệ thống chống spam review trên google maps.
February 12, 2022 by SEO Local
Lần đầu tiên google công khai cách thực hiện cũng như xử lý các review spam trên google maps, Google đã viết một bài đăng trên blog, kèm theo một đoạn video ngắn, mô tả những gì họ làm để giải quyết các vấn đề với các bài đánh giá trong Google Maps.
Google cho biết thêm họ sử dụng cả con người và thuật toán để chống lại spam đánh giá và trí tuệ nhân tạo AI là “tuyến phòng thủ đầu tiên” của Google, Họ cho biết. Các thuật toán của Google xem xét các bài đánh giá từ các góc độ sau:
Nội dung đánh giá: Có chứa nội dung xúc phạm hoặc lạc đề không?
Tài khoản đã để lại đánh giá: Tài khoản Google có bất kỳ lịch sử hành vi đáng ngờ nào không?
Địa điểm được đánh giá: Có hoạt động bất thường – chẳng hạn như nhiều bài đánh giá trong một khoảng thời gian ngắn không? Gần đây địa điểm này có gây chú ý trên các mạng truyền thông hay mạng xã hội, đặc biệt trên phương tiện truyền thông xã hội để thúc đẩy mọi người để lại những đánh giá gian lận không?
Các phương pháp tự động của Google tìm kiếm các mẫu, Google đã tiết lộ một số mẫu mà nó tìm kiếm bao gồm một nhóm người để lại đánh giá trên cùng một nhóm Hồ sơ doanh nghiệp cho một doanh nghiệp hoặc một nơi duy nhất nhận được một số lượng cao bất thường là 1 hoặc Đánh giá 5 sao trong một khoảng thời gian ngắn, ( cái này thường các đơn vị sử dụng phần mềm để làm dịch vụ review giá rẻ sẽ bị google thu thập và áp dụng hình thức phạt) các bạn có thể tham khảo các hình thức google phạt qua bài viết sau đây: Reviews trên google maps bị tụt, mất, xóa, không hiện, thì maps của bạn đang bị phạt.
google maps
Google cho biết “nhân viên vận hành của Google sẽ thường xuyên chạy các bài kiểm tra chất lượng và hoàn thành khóa đào tạo cũng như bổ sung liên tục các hình thức spam mới mà các công ty cung cấp dịch vụ tăng review giá rẻ hay làm, đặc biệt google sẽ loại bỏ những maps sử dụng phần mềm review hàng loạt vượt qua được những thuật toán của trí tuệ nhân tạo của google.”
Nhưng trong khi các phương pháp tự động hoạt động nhanh chóng, đôi khi những map đặc biệt cần con người xem xét. Ngoài việc sử dụng nhân viên để xem xét google còn dựa vào những local guides gắn cờ các bài đánh giá trên google maps để đảm bảo chất lượng các review đúng với tiêu chí của google . Google cho biết “nhân viên điều hành của họ làm việc suốt ngày đêm để xem xét nội dung bị gắn cờ. Khi chúng tôi phát hiện thấy các bài đánh giá vi phạm chính sách của mình, chúng tôi sẽ xóa chúng khỏi Google và trong một số trường hợp, người dùng lạm dụng sử dụng tính năng gắn cờ vô tội vạ, chúng tôi sẽ tạm ngưng tài khoản người dùng hoặc thậm chí khởi kiện người báo cáo không đúng.” nếu các bạn muốn biết chi tiết google siết chặt đối với local guides chuyên đi đánh giá và báo có google, mời các bạn đọc bài viết sau đây: Chương trình Local Guides của Google mới cập nhập, siết chặt hơn đối với tài khoản.
Dù sao, chúng ta đều biết Google đang rất quan tâm đến google maps đặc biệt là các đánh giá địa điểm doanh nghiệp, nhưng thật vui khi thấy Google đang cố gắng minh bạch hơn về vấn đề này nhằm giúp một sân chơi bình đẳng cho các doanh nghiệp trên nền tảng, chính vì vậy việc tăng review trên google maps bằng người thật thì luôn luôn google khuyến khích và bảo vệ các doanh nghiệp.
I understand and thank you for the feedback. I will look again over the photos that I uploaded and see if I can remove some redundancy. As for appeals of rejected reviews, yes I tried to appeal for some of them, in the beginning some got re-instated by human moderators (even though it took like 3 weeks of waiting in some cases), some very few got approved by AI, but most of them and especially lately didn’t even get reviewed by anyone, the AI said “your appeal got canceled” and “we could not process your appeal because review is not posted” stuff which I didn’t really understand and there was no one else to speak with. I tried replying to some emails from Google but received no answer.
As for the Vietnamese reply in the topic I am not sure what it says because I only speak Romanian, English and Spanish but I will try to Google Translate it and read again.
Hi @AndreyRlz , your appeal will be cancelled if you modify the review after appealing. So never touch a review after sending the appeal. If you need to modify a review to make it complaint with te policies, you should do it “before” asking for the appeal.
But when a review is modified you can submit a new appeal, if your review isn’t posted.
Regarding replies in different languages, a translator is available on the bottom of the reply for languages that are different from the one selected in your settings in Connect.
Thank you for that, I didn’t know, however lately (at least in the last month) I didn’t edit any reviews after sending an appeal so I must say that is ruled out of the question. Also the fact that AI auto-hides all my reviews lately no matter which type of business I review (for locations I visited) also seems a little strange to me. If it’s called AI it should have a mind of its own and understand my reviews, ok I understand maybe not post 2 or 3 reviews but to auto-deny hundreds of my reviews for locations that I visited with no human verification whatsoever and then to auto-cancel my appeals without any human verification that is very strange to me. Maybe it will improve in the future or is my account just doomed?
@AndreyRlz Thật tiếc vì bài đánh giá của đã bị xoá đi quá nhiều. Theo tôi nghĩ việc bạn muốn google khôi phục thì khả năng là không thể. Tuy nhiên các bài viết đánh giá gần đây của bạn vẫn được hiển thị bình thường . Các ảnh của bạn còn một số trùng lặp hoặc gần giống nhau. Bạn cần đóng góp cho đúng quy định nếu không tài khoản LG của bạn rất dễ bị đình chỉ
Thank you and yes I am looking into getting the duplicate photos issue resolved this week. However, you are saying that some of my recent reviews are being posted? Because I am still getting emails that “reviews are not posted” and that “may appeal” however since the AI auto-cancels my appeals I am reluctant to appeal to the decisions that are also taken by AI. It’s a shame really considering how old my Contributor account is, some of the most popular businesses in Bucharest now like Dristor Kebab Dristor I am the one who added them to Maps several years ago and I also contribute to correct wrong information like restaurant opening hours or names whenever possible. I hope Google will look into this in 2025 and put more human moderators instead of AI (actually AI is a long shot for me I regard it as a more basic robot of regulation).
Sorry for the late reply, @AndreyRlz .
I had the same issue a couple of years ago. It took time but I was able to fix it. Everything I posted was immediately made “private” (visible only to me) including simple ratings without any review. The reason is that after a certain amount of hidden reviews identified as “Fake engagement” the account is flagged, and even appealing for every single review, and having the review released, was not enough to remove the flag.
In this case the better option is to use the form that you will find in An update on how we moderate Google Maps reviews.
I could share the form here, but I think the article is an interesting reading.
I could also give you a very long explanation of why reviews are blocked, and the related legalities that somehow force Maps, and anyone else hosting online reviews, to do this. But I prefer to share with you the long article I wrote about it (being one of the first to have experience with this situation allowed me to study the problem in detail): Your review has not been published. Do you know why?
Now, before to submit an appeal, a few points to keep in mind:
- Fix the photo issue before appealing. Photos added in more than one place are absolutely forbidden, and will lead to removal from the Local Guides program. Redundant photos (very similar) are considered just a trick to gain more points without adding any information to the places. Choose the best one and delete the others. Screenshots taken from Apps or the web are absolutely forbidden.
When we appeal the team verifies our profile, and these images would lead to a penalty. - After the appeal it may take a long time (8 weeks in my case) for the reviews to be restored.
I had to appeal again, after the first restoration of my reviews, to have my account un-flagged
I am still being restricted on writing Google Maps reviews for locations that I visited and I don’t understand why, my reviews are not offensive and definitely not fake, they range all the way from 2 stars to 5 stars, yet the AI rejects them then auto rejects my appeal as well, how is this admissible
Hi @AndreyRlz
I hope you’re following google’s review policies
You can check this out Maps user-generated content policy
Thank you, yes I am aware of the policies and types of restricted content, to my knowledge I havent breached any content, the AI accuses me of “fake engagement” but I never received any money or prize to write a review and 95% of the locations I review are visited personally by me
Hi @AndreyRlz , I am sorry about your situation, please note what is shared is reliable and adheres to the Maps content policies
kindly take a look at this post, it may be helpful
@AndreyRlz
You started the same conversation a few days ago. Now in this one you are getting almost the same replies because most of the people is unaware of the previous conversation.
For this reason and to keep Connect organised I am merging this topic with the previous one, where you never responded to my last question.
Thank you for the reply.
- I fixed the photo issue to the best of my knowledge, deleted the duplicate photos that I could found for 2 locations or more and only left them for 1 location which I remember they were for (even though the locations were like 10 meters apart in some cases)
- My appeal was approved I received email about it like 2 days ago saying reviews were re-posted and restrictions were un lifted, yet from what I checked all remained the same like few months ago, only photos get posted, text reviews are denied by AI for “fake engagement”
- Does that mean I will have to submit another account appeal and wait some more weeks?
- If Google does not want my reviews, why does it keep asking me “How was your experience at X company” or “Give star rating for X company now” for locations that I visited
Hi @AndreyRlz , thanks for the feedback.
Do you have a screenshot of the email? If so can you share it here? Please make sure to not share any personal info in there (e.g. your email address)
Yes, as far as I can see the numbers are more or less the same that you had a few weeks ago, that’s why I am asking for the screenshot.
For sure Google wants your reviews, but on the meantime they must be sure that the reviews are reliable, as I explained already to you when I shared the relevant article.
Regarding your photos, you should also remove ALL the screenshots you posted in Maps.
Also you still have several duplicates and redundant photos
I see,okay I will look more into the photos and screenshots uploaded, even though I’ve seen several other people uploading screenshots just fine (when pertaining to the conversation with a company or service center or when posting air quality for the national environment guard) but okay I will filter for my screenshots as well. I attach a copy of the email I received around 2 days ago.
Hi @AndreyRlz
The email you shared is telling us that:
- Your account was suspended
- You appealed using the specific appeal form: Local Guides Appeal form - Local Guides Help
- Your account was reinstated
This has nothing to do with reinstating your reviews.
To have the reviews checked by the team please submit a request through this form
Thank you and I followed your advice to use that latter form as well. I just have one question, if they say my account was reinstated and removed of restrictions, then how come the AI still rejects my new reviews saying they are “fake engagement” even if I visited and interacted personally with those locations?