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Japanese Courts Order Google to Remove Reviews from Google Maps

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google maps headerThe court in Japan ordered Google to remove two negative customer reviews from Google Maps that were left anonymously on a location of a medical clinic.

According to TechCrunch,  Google is “considering our options”, so it is likely we could see an appeal.  But it is unknown if the two reviews have been removed already.

The reviews in question were two anonymous reviews left for a medical clinic in Japan, but they did not violate any of Google’s own policies. While details of the reviews nor the name of the clinic in question were released, the fact it is a medical clinic does raise a lot of red flags, particularly if the review was left because the clinic in some way jeopardized a patient’s health. Many users check reviews for clinic and physicians prior to appointment, so removing these reviews could potentially skew how someone looks at the medical clinic reviews – or any reviews – in the future

The court ruled that Google must remove the reviews not just from Japan’s Google Maps, but from being visible on any Google sites. This is quite different from how Google handles other types of removals. such as EU’s “Right to be Forgotten” which sees Google only remove the listings from the EU while retaining them in the rest of the world.

It is unclear if the reviews are only required to be removed specifically when displayed on Google maps or if it carries over to Google My Business as well.  But since the courts want them removed from Google Maps worldwide, it likely calls for removal of the two reviews entirely.

This also undermines the review process for Google and has the potential to decrease the value of reviews if negative ones can be removed by court order.  Google could easily see a huge surge of lawsuits from businesses to one negative reviews removed, rather than handling them in one of the many other ways available to them.

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Jennifer Slegg

Founder & Editor at The SEM Post
Jennifer Slegg is a longtime speaker and expert in search engine marketing, working in the industry for almost 20 years. When she isn't sitting at her desk writing and working, she can be found grabbing a latte at her local Starbucks or planning her next trip to Disneyland. She regularly speaks at Pubcon, SMX, State of Search, Brighton SEO and more, and has been presenting at conferences for over a decade.

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