What you should know
- Google is making changes to Maps to prevent policy-violating content.
- Google announced three new ways to stop fake content, including constant monitoring and proactive protection during important events.
- Google is implementing protections to prevent abuse and is not allowing Maps reviews for specific places like prisons and police stations.
- Users trying to write a review for a prison on Google Maps will be met with a notification banner informing them that the functionality is turned off.
Full Story
Google has announced new measures to prevent policy-violating content from being submitted to Google Maps. With over 300 million people sharing their experiences on Google Maps yearly, this is an important mission for the company. The changes involve constant monitoring of contributed content and detecting any unusual patterns. When fake content is detected, Google promises to act fast and implement protections to prevent further abuse, such as taking down the fake content or temporarily disabling new contributions.
Furthermore, Google is focusing on preventing abuse ahead of sensitive moments like elections or other important events. The company is proactively protecting places during times when there’s an uptick in off-topic and unhelpful content by limiting the ability for people to suggest edits to phone numbers, addresses and other factual info to help avoid the spread of misinformation. Additionally, Google will not allow Maps reviews for specific places like prisons and police stations. These places benefit from longer-term protections since user contributions are consistently unhelpful, harmful, or off-topic.
If a user tries to write a review for a prison, for example, they will be met with a notification banner that informs them the functionality is turned off with a link to learn more about the company’s policies. Overall, these measures aim to maintain the accuracy and integrity of the content on Google Maps.
