Google seems to be expanding the feature where they turn off the ability for some local listings, Google Business Profiles, to allow posting reviews. We covered this before during the UK and limited release, where you would get a notice that says "Posting reviews is turned off for this place." But now it seems to be expanding to more regions and businesses.
Google first started this "feature" to turn off the ability for some local listings to accept reviews in December 2023 (or probably even earlier). I believe it was just available in some regions, like the UK. In 2024, Google posted a document on this named consumer alerts that explained this more.
Ben Fisher posted yesterday that it is expanding, he wrote on X that he is "Starting to see the consumer notices in the wild" and he is based in the US. Joy Hawkins said that her colleague, Colan Nielsen also spotted one recently in the US.
Here are some screenshots from Ben.
This is the notice when you try to post on one of these listings:
It says:
Posting reviews is turned off for this placeGoogle has temporarily turned off posting reviews due to a recent increase in suspicious high-rated reviews. The suspicious reviews were removed and the rating updated.
Here is the notice in the Google Business Profile:
Suspicious high-rated reviews were recently removed from this place
Ben said that while this is not new, what is new is that this is now rolling out. He said, "New. Was tested before.. but now it is rolling out."
New. Was tested before.. but now it is rolling out
— Ben Fisher (@TheSocialDude) June 24, 2025
Yeah this is the first time I've seen it in the USA.
— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) June 25, 2025
Have you seen this in the US?
Forum discussion at X.
