""It was fine, but not amazing, and not what I expected from the high ranking review-it was four-point-something," she recalls. Upon returning home, she noticed her middling review of the establishment was taken down. "When they said it was defamatory I was confused," she says. "I did some Googling, then realized what had gone on. And suddenly the high rating for what I thought was pretty average made sense.""
"For much of the world, Google is far more pervasive than Yelp. If you want to find the best tourist attractions, bars, or restaurants in a new city outside the United States, your first port of call is likely Google Maps. The system works relatively well. The best restaurants are rewarded with good reviews, while would-be customers can make their own judgment on establishments that garner a two- or three-star rating."
A U.K. visitor's three-star review of a Berlin bar was removed after being labeled defamatory, and subsequent research revealed a pattern of takedowns. Google Maps serves as the primary global review platform outside the United States and normally provides varied ratings that help consumers judge businesses. In Germany, an overly permissive defamation system leads to frequent removal of negative reviews through Google's takedown process. Official European data shows 99.97% of Google Maps reviews removed for "defamation" across the 27-country EU are for businesses based in Germany. The prevalence of four- and five-star listings has generated widespread complaints and undermined trust in online reviews.
Read at Fast Company
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]