Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by outime 10 days ago
Google has routinely removed respectful, factual, but low-rated reviews I've left for restaurants and other places just because someone complained. They have also cleaned up or disabled reviews for many public institutions in some (or all?) countries. Then there are cases like Germany, where even a 3-star review may be automatically removed because it's considered potentially defamatory.

I understand that ICE is a very contentious topic but this seems to happen quite often in other situations as well. It's made me value Google Maps reviews much less.

2 comments

I left a [positive/glowing] google maps review for my child's preschool, only to discover later the review was never made publicly visible. I have no idea why, and there's of course no appeal process. The experience leaves a very bitter taste.
Same - I had an extremely horrid experience at a local dealership's service department, and that one only appears when I'm signed in and looking at it, but doesn't appear at all signed out, yet the rest of my reviews are A-OK.

A little worrying.