No mentions of war/activists in public spaces allowed?

Google Maps tips & tricks
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I just had something strange happen.

I rated (4*) and reviewed a very popular city plaza square in Poland over a week ago. 30 minutes ago, I got an email that said my review cannot be posted. It has been active for over a week with no issues. In this specific place, there is often a group of refugees/allies raising awareness of the plight of their home country, Ukraine. I mentioned them in the review (I did not criticize it in any way. It would be read as supporting the activists) and some of my photos of the location include them waving flags of both Poland and Ukraine.

I’m curious if my review has been reported (by anti-Ukrainian people) and that’s why it’s been actioned, or if it’s against Google’s policies to even mention war/political issues/depict protestors or activists in public places like town plazas?

It is telling me that “This place is currently more likely to receive content that violates Google’s policies. To prevent this, Google has turned off posting.”

Again, it had been active for over a week already. This just happened 30 minutes ago. It’s also incorrect because currently Google has NOT turned off posting to this location. There are many, many reviews from the last hour. Why would Google not give a proper truthful reason for taking down my review?

I don’t know why I keep running into this issue whenever I post to popular tourist locations. Google always tells me the same thing (it happened with Auschwitz too, which again is a place of political, historical, and social intensity). Is there some rule about posting anything remotely political or historical in nature? I seem to run into this issue often and I can’t figure out why. I also am not saying anything different than what many, many others are saying in their reviews.

I am going to try removing mentions of the activists and photos of their flags and see what happens but I think this is a very concerning limitation by Google, if that is the reason. It was my experience in the location and it should be known that this happens in this location, just like people often speak of drug use, student protests, or homelessness in other public locations. I understand Maps not wanting to serve as a platform for political activism/argument, but when reviewers can rate businesses one star simply for supporting Russia or Ukraine or Israel or Palestine or USA and write that boldly in their reviews completely unfounded with no proof of said businesses’ political affiliations and never having even been to a pin, I do not see why mentioning the existence of activists in public spaces in a neutral way would be flagged.

If it’s the case that anti-Ukrainian people can have my review taken down for mentioning Ukraine, then that too is anti-Ukrainian political activism and silencing by them and Google. Seems hypocritical.

People can say a public park is terrible because of homeless people being there and the city doing nothing about it which is also a political and social statement about the government and society, but mentions of anti-war activists in a public space is banned? Very weird.

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I would also just like to note: I attempted to add italics to a few words in the post above and it would not let me post saying it was Invalid HTML despite the fact I used the editor above to add it. It has nothing to do with my post but I thought it was a strange glitch on Google’s part here.

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Hi @rabbithearts

No html is allowed in reviews on Maps.

It is not unusual that a review get published and later rechecked and then taken down.

In this case it is more likely that a lot of unwanted and irrelevant messages were posted to the pin and a temporary block was out in place.

So most likely it is not your review but the place that is the problem.

Mentioning a war is unlikely to be an issue, but sometimes like at the start of the ongoing war a lot of people used Google reviews to express their political views on businesses that were not at any fault.

I doubt you can solve the issue by editing your review. Leave it for now and check again in a few months. Things might change.

Cheers

Morten

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Thank you, @MortenCopenhagen .

Other reviews are constantly being posted to this pin. Like many every hour. Even now. And they seem to all be relevant. It’s a very popular tourist location. It’s just mine that was taken down a week later and told I cannot post due to Google stopping reviews. It just doesn’t make sense. It was already posted so Google not currently accepting reviews right now should have no bearing on it.

I will wait and try again. I did notice on my laptop 2 of my photos of the Ukrainian flags had that little warning symbol on them, so I deleted those. Still no change.

PS. The HTML issue was not about Maps reviews. It was about this forum. I tried to add italics in my original post here on the forums and it told me invalid HTML. I just thought the mod should know the rich text editor here was glitchy.

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@rabbithearts

I see.

Also, keep in mind that the trigger 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.

Cheers

Morten

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Fair enough. I have been trying to pace myself and space out reviews although I have a short period to play around online. So as not to trigger any spam filters. I’ll try your other advice too.

I just wish Google actually gave an accurate reason for a review being taken down/blocked when it tells you there’s a problem. It would save a lot of confusion, and I could actually correct the issue myself instead of bothering everyone here lol. :wink:

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@rabbithearts My experience with “Invalid HTML” is that Connect does the correction itself and then allows me to submit the post again.

1 Like