Dear Google community,
Being a Local Guide (level 7) I am wondering why my reviews are not being published. It’s claimed that I faked them… despite me even attaching photos with meta information proofing I was there. This happened a few times already, and lately for my 4 last reviews. I can’t link them as they are not published. Can you please help me how this can be prevented?
Thank you very much
Some example reviews:
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Have I given a restaurant a negative review in the time period from late 2019 to now? Yes I have. Maybe more than one. The most recent one being ‘Tendril’ which ruined my birthday and has extremely bad management, and that review was flagged as me doing a false review even tho I have a booking from it and a signed document from the manager saying I won’t be charged.
But, after that review I am posting new ones which continue to get views ( so some people are able to see them ) but I can’t see them on the companies that they are reviews for. My ratings are usually 3 star upwards on average I’d say.
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It may be right (and yes I’ve left a legit 2 star review during Covid that got many likes), but it can’t be a solution to delete the review to get unbanned… I’ve nearly 50 unpublished reviews and not getting an official statement from Google is quite disappointing tbh.
Not sure it does confirm it, because I’m still writing reviews that get ‘views’, how could I be any kind of banned if those new reviews are being seen?
Having said that, I’m sure google will side with business over individuals, so yeah, maybe. Or just broken/poor ai
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I see some but not all of them. But, multiple people are able to see them, so they are showing up for some people.
I mean, how can a review say it’s been taken down but people are able to like it? 
my pictures are still clearly visible and my videos that I’ve left are also visible on all reviews.
Exactly the same for me! Now I can’t publish comments anymore because for the past month none of my comments were published. I filled in the Local Guides Appeal form, I received the following response :
“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.”
So, no penalties but my new comments still get banned. If anyone has a solution, would be great ! 
Thanks
Hey got the exact same problem, there is no reason why my reviews don’t publish as usual…
Has anyone got an email address to which we could share this problem please ?
Thanks
Hi Ben,
I used this local guides appeal form : https://support.google.com/local-guides/contact/local_guides_appeal
Not helping a lot but that’s the only thing I found to contact the local guide support.
Have to use a form that someone’s supplied above, don’t hold your breath tho.
Hey Camelia,
Thanks for your reply ! I filled the form, but according to some people in the comminity, google doesn’t answer … Let’s wait and hope, thanks !
Hidden reviews are hidden for all Maps users. The spam filter runs right after you hit submit but also now and then there after. This is why you can see that some hidden reviews have views and even likes. They were public at some point and then made private. And the spam filter is constantly improved over time.
Cheers
Morten
That would make sense to 1 specific review. Not totally blacklisted and ALL new reviews not being shown. Everything not shown is being blacklisted …
Interesting developments. My appeal form has been replied to saying there’s no restrictions whatsoever on my account. If I appeal a newly posted review it directly returns an “appeal rejected - review won’t be published” email… I really don’t get it. So much effort to support the community and no support from Google’s side.
Hello Lars, I got the same reply from Google support. I took a 2 month break, I stopped my local guides activities and tried again 5 days ago. My reviews are now being published…
