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.

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.

Sadly after 365 days the count resets :(
Evil corp helping evil...

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?

So many vulnerable people are relying on Google Maps reviews & ratings to tell them where it is save to go.

They should probably stop doing that.

https://www.theglobetrotterguys.com/gay-berlin-travel-guide/

I don't only blame google, I also blame the German laws around this

convenience seems to trump any other concerns, including privacy

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.

Of course? Where did I say they shouldn't be removed?

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.

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

probably not, seems like they try to make it easier for the companies

are they following local law or are they making it as easy on themselves as possible, at the cost of users once again?

You can remove those by actual defamation lawsuit in any country I think, however what is done in Germany seems very different and at the cost of the users imho.

well if they would like to start with a new reputation they could simply rebrand, however if they take the old brand they take its good and the bad reputation with it right?