Google Maps is blocking reviews of the White House

For a second time in a week, Google Maps is being called out for suppressing people ability to express their feelings about the Trump administration. The most recent example is the removal of the ratings feature for the White House denying people the possibility of leaving a review of the historic building and residence of the sitting US president.

If you look on Google Maps for any of the other presidential palaces around the world, you’ll see users reviews and the landmarks’ rating. The same is true for other government buildings across Washington DC but there is another landmark that Trump has turned into a politically contentious issue that has had its ratings turned off as well.

Last week, the go-to app for finding locations updated the name of the Gulf of Mexico for users in the United States to comply with an executive order by the 47th US president to rename the body of water the ‘Gulf of America’. The move drew criticism and a campaign of ‘review-bombing’ with hundreds of one-star ratings to protest the decision.

All recent reviews have since been removed and a note states that “posting is currently turned off.” That has drawn its own criticism and accusations of censorship and led to one-star reviews for the popular app itself.

Why is Google Maps blocking reviews of the White House and the Gulf of Mexico/America?

Neither of the above examples are firsts for Google Maps. The tech giant explained in a blog in 2023 ‘How Google Maps protects against fake content’. The company uses “both automated technologies and our expert teams to catch fake reviews before they’re ever seen.”

Google shared three ways that they do this and one is responding to real-time abuse. When suspicious activity is detected, protections may be put in place to stop it in its tracks. “This can include everything from taking down policy-violating content to temporarily disabling new contributions,” explained the post.

A recent example occurred in December when a slew of negative reviews were posted about a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania where Luigi Mangione was arrested. He was the 26-year-old suspect charged with the murder of United Healthcare boss Brian Thompson.

Google Maps justifies the move based on its contribution policy rules. “Deliberately fake content, copied or stolen photos, off-topic reviews, defamatory language, personal attacks, and unnecessary or incorrect content are all in violation of our policy,” states the company. “Fake engagement is not allowed and will be removed.”

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