"Your account has been suspended from posting reviews and your existing reviews have been taken down

Hi all,

Long-time google local guide here and avid reviewer.

Today I received a quite bizarre email from Google:

“Thank you for your review of Le Grain de Riz. Unfortunately, it isn’t posted because:
Your account has been suspended from posting reviews and your existing reviews have been taken down because of multiple violations of Google’s policies.”

This particular review is of a restaurant I visited 12 months ago, I’ve made many reviews since then, I don’t really understand why this message is coming through now? The review is in no way contentious either, it’s a positive one.
My reviews do all seem to still be visible, so it doesn’t look like my reviews have been taken down like the message frm google said.

How do I find out what has actually happened, and why?

I think this probably has to do with a terrible hotel in Vietnam that I stayed in and reviewed a few weeks ago; they’ve been threatening me/harassing me to delete the review I left continuously, I fear that if my account has been deleted, it’s due to some false claims/reporting by them in order to get my review of their hotel deleted, very sad.

Hi @jakehyslop

Something bad is happening on your account.

I can confirm from your public profile that you have added 287 reviews and only 13 of them are public.

Google has automatic filters that hide your reviews so only you can see them. This can happen when some of your reviews violate the guidelines, including:
Prohibited and Restricted Content
Format Specific Criteria (See under Text Reviews and Captions)

Read about typical review guideline violations here.

If you are on a Desktop use this link to Count your hidden contributions. From a mobile device use this link.

If you want to identify which of your reviews are hidden please see this post.

Currently, your issue might not be your fault. Please read Known issue: Unpublished reviews and photos on Google Maps. And, make a reply to request your account also be investigated.

Best of luck
Morten

@jakehyslop

So far Google has been testing sending out such messages in France, but I think it is news in the UK. Maybe you would care to share a screenshot of the email. Kindly make sure your name and email address is not visible.

Thanks

Morten

Sorry about your issue, @jakehyslop

As @MortenCopenhagen , this kind of message is actually sent for reviews related to places IN France (and Le Grain de Riz is in Paris, Morten).

This seems to be a kind of “partial suspension” (related to reviews only) so I suggest you to ask an investigation of your profile, by filling the

Appeal form****, "letting Google know you’ve been removed. Be sure to provide Google with your Google Maps profile URL so they can look into it. It can take up to three weeks to investigate banned accounts, so please be patient. The team will reach out privately as soon as they have an update.

I’ve had an email from 'noreply@google.com’ , the subject is ‘Update on your Local Guide Appeal’, but the body of the email is blank. There is nothing in it. What on earth is going on?

I can’t even reply to say ‘this email is blank, you forgot to insert/type whatever you were trying to update me about’, as it’s a ‘no reply’ address.

Any ideas?

I have exactly the same problem and it started with reviews in France, Nice from 3 years and Strasbourg from 4 years ago, both reviews are positive with 5 stars…

I made an appeal and I got today the following answer. My reviews are still hidden and can’t be viewed via Icognito mode. It seems to me like a bug in Google’s algorithm…

Hello,

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.

If you have any further questions please consult the Local Guides Help Center.

Thanks,

Google support

Hello,

I have the same problem, how can I fix it?