Recently, I noticed an unusual pattern with my reviews and photos for certain places on Maps. Despite adhering to the content policy and ensuring my photos were clear and my reviews accurately reflected my experiences. But now some of them have been marked as private. To resolve the issue, I even tried removing the private images and re-uploading them but that didn’t work either.
What’s more concerning is that this seems to affect chain patterns. For instance in my case example, it involved Starbucks locations in India. I visited multiple branches, ensuring I uploaded specific photos and reviews tied to each shop without any mismatches.
Below is a list of places where I’ve encountered this issue. It raises questions about whether there’s a policy or Geo-specific restriction.
Here’s another example related to the issue. The review I posted four months ago shown in the picture below was originally public. In fact, the owner of the place even responded to it, acknowledging my feedback. However, last month, I noticed that this review had been marked as private for no apparent reason. It’s puzzling and raises questions about how reviews are managed over time.
@mrinmoiHossain I faced a similar problem while staying at a global chain hotel in London.
I wrote a review mentioning some issues with their service, but that review is not publicly visible.
I added a screenshot, but even though I firmly believe that Google’s rules have not been violated here, it has not been made public.
Hello @mrinmoiHossain and @MahabubMunna ,
you are not alone and this is neither related to hotels nor any Geo-specific restriction.
Alle reviews and uploaded media are checked by a filter - not only after posting, also periodically later on. It not only checks for obeying the rules, but also for suspected SPAM and fake information. Those checks can also be wrong, but in order to fight fake news, it is better to hide too many, rather than not enough.
If a review has photos attached, the text and all photos are checked. If only a single photo is refused, the entire review and all other photos attached to it, will be hidden to the public.
Therefore, as a first step to solve this, remove all photos and watch, if the text-only review is published. If so, attach the photos again, but when by one.
To understand more, read this: How to Get In and Out of Trouble: The Main post and the other links, @MortenCopenhagen kindly provided in that article.
I just checked your profile @mrinmoiHossain:
In total, you have 45 of your photos and 11 reviews hidden. @MahabubMunna has 222 photos and 67 reviews hidden.
I also tag @ErmesT , since he usually has some more explanations and better than mine .
Thank you @WilfriedB, for your immediate and thoughtful feedback. I’ve read this similar solution before and have tried applying it but unfortunately, it didn’t work for my scenario also.
I think your reply is 100% correct, @WilfriedB
Apparently there are no posting restrictions in the places: Posting Restrictions - Maps User Contributed Content Policy Help, and in any case normally a review is not removed if Google is restricting the place after the review is posted.
In any case I see also places that are not part of a chain, @mrinmoiHossain , so I think it is more a normal action of the filter. Try the steps suggested by Wilfried and, if the reviews are not removed, fill the Appeal form
If you did identify a hidden photo, uploading exactly the same again doesn’t help at all and might be even counterproductive since it becomes more likely suspicious for SPAM.
However, I was successful in at least two cases where I cropped the image to remove a traffic sign (no idea why) or a visible face.
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