Google blocks over 170 mn policy-violating reviews in 2023

Google has said it blocked or removed more than 170 million policy-violating reviews from last year on Maps and Search — by using its new machine learning (ML) algorithm. Last year, this new algorithm helped the tech giant take down 45 per cent more fake reviews than the year before. More than 12 million fake business profiles were also blocked, the company said. “Last year, we launched a new machine learning algorithm that detects questionable review patterns even faster. It does so by examining longer-term signals on a daily basis — like if a reviewer leaves the same review on multiple businesses or if a business receives a sudden spike in 1 or 5-star reviews,” Google said in a blogpost.