cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/50778217
🗺️ While visiting Pride Berlin, I learned how utterly pointless Google Maps Reviews in Germany are.
⭐ Any place can simply report negative reviews for defamation or claim the person was never there and have it removed.
Users can then appeal & risk a lawsuit.
When a review is removed the removed count on Google Maps goes up (🖼️ 1)
However that count is reset after 365 days and also only goes to 250! (🖼️ 2)
Therefore companies can simply mass report negative reviews to improve their rating.
https://support.google.com/contributionpolicy/answer/16997273
So many vulnerable people are relying on Google Maps reviews & ratings to tell them where it is save to go.
Some places have only 1000-2000 reviews but >250 reviews removed in the past 365 days!
Like how bad must the situation there be?!
Absolute shame.
11 Comments
starlinguk@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 3d
If a company has many removed reviews they're crap. If they don't, they're not crap. They're deliberately showing how many have been removed.
zakobjoa@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 3d
A Café in my hometown recently got review bombed by nazis after they kicked out a far right streamer. Hundreds of one star reviews by people who had never been there, with made up claims. Should they not be able to have these removed?
starlinguk@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
Of course? Where did I say they shouldn't be removed?
zakobjoa@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d
You said they're crap if they have many removed comments. They have a rating of 4.7 and did so before the review bombing.
madeindex@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 3d
Sadly after 365 days the count resets :( Evil corp helping evil...
starlinguk@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 2d
That's kind of fair, though. A company could change hands, or a product could change. In the latter case you often see great reviews that actually relate to a totally different product because they've enshittified it.
PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de · 23 pts · 3d
I don't only blame google, I also blame the German laws around this
smeg@feddit.uk · 16 pts · 3d
Yeah, of all the things to criticise Google for actually following local laws isn't really high on my list
Shamot@jlai.lu · 2 pts · 1d
Is the 250 limit a German law?
If not, they could just give the exact number and let you calculate a new mean considering they all had 1/5
schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 3d
They should probably stop doing that.
https://www.theglobetrotterguys.com/gay-berlin-travel-guide/
eldavi@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 2d
convenience seems to trump any other concerns, including privacy