Google and TripAdvisor restricts reviews on Russian businesses

Google and TripAdvisor have invalidated reviews in Russia and Ukraine after people have used them as a space to protest Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Google blocked all new reviews, but TripAdvisor would only block reviews on lists that saw a surge in people using reviews to talk about the invasion of Ukraine. 

A Google spokesperson has said that the company has put additional protections in place to monitor and prevent content that violates our policies for Maps, including temporarily blocking new reviews, photos, and videos in the region. The step was taken due to an increase in contributed content on Google Maps related to the war in Ukraine.

Many reviews on the Russian businesses, that mentioned the war have been removed by Google. Whereas, a spokesperson of TripAdvisor has said that the company is not placing a ban on new reviews for Russian or Ukrainian businesses. It is also closely monitoring the incoming review submissions for businesses located in the affected countries.