Google’s open-ended policy, meant to protect against trolls and protesters abusing the system during the conflict, is one example of the hardships many small businesses in Israel and the Palestinian territories have faced since the conflict, which has devastated their economies and upended the tourism industry they rely on. New businesses set up since October Bloomberg I can’t register it on Google Maps.
“As we have done in conflict zones, we have put additional safeguards in place to monitor and prevent content that violates our Maps policies, including temporarily blocking new reviews, photos and videos in Israel and the Gaza Strip,” a Google spokesperson said, declining to comment on specific cases. Similar policies were also put in place in Russia and Ukraine in 2022 but have since been lifted, according to media reports at the time.
Small business owners who weren’t informed about the change are struggling to find a remedy. When Miriam Brainin, chief operating officer of Tel Aviv-based job placement agency JobHunt, first approached Google about the disappearance of customer reviews in October, she was initially told they violated the company’s policies. A month later, she was informed the reviews would be disabled until further notice, but no explanation was given, according to the screenshots shared. Bloomberg.
“They didn’t mention anything about the war. I really asked myself if I had done something wrong,” Brainin said in a phone interview.
A Google search of Brainin and Qureish’s business shows it as open, but the war forced many Israeli businesses to close, especially in the first months when hundreds of thousands of Israelis were called up for military reserves.
“My customers assume that because the war is on and there are no new reviews, we’re no longer in business,” Brainin said. “We’re not one of those stores where you can go and see for yourself if we’re open.”
Some startups in the Israeli-occupied territories have seen Google’s policies as a necessary evil to block inappropriate content, and have turned to advertising and word-of-mouth on other social media platforms. Ronit Botzer, who opened an organic hair salon in Tel Aviv in February, is one of them, but can’t get an address on Google Maps. She posts in Facebook groups and on Instagram, relying mainly on walk-in customers and locals.
But Brainin argued that Google should have implemented stricter content moderation policies rather than a blanket ban on all reviews. “They thought they were going to protect us, but instead they punished dozens, if not hundreds, of companies in Israel,” Brainin said.
