Berlin Trust Index Berlin Vertrauensindex

Germany's anti-hate-speech law (NetzDG) requires platforms to act on reported content within 24 hours — or face fines up to €50 million. Legal service firms have found a way in. For as little as €49, they file a defamation complaint against a customer review on a business's behalf. Google processes it. The reviewer often doesn't know it happened. The business gets a cleaner rating.

The complaint is anonymous. It's signed "gez. Rechtsanwalt" — signed, a lawyer. No name. No firm. You can find the removal in your comment history. You can't find out who put it there.

This map surfaces Google's own disclosures — nothing private was accessed. A high removal count means defamation complaints were filed and Google processed them. It does not mean the business acted wrongfully.

Many venues on this map are places we genuinely love. The problem isn't them — it's a legal system that makes removal cheap, fast, and anonymous.

The caveat cuts both ways: a business may have been the victim of a coordinated negative review campaign and legitimately sought help. The data shows volume only.

3,678 Berlin venues checked so far. 672 with recorded removals. At least 27,327 reviews removed — likely more, since Google stops disclosing above 250 per venue.

Google only counts removals processed in the last 365 days, and only those made due to defamation complaints that were not subsequently reversed on appeal. The totals shown here are therefore a lower bound — they exclude older removals and any that were appealed.

Google discloses in bands rather than exact counts. Ranges: 1, 2–5, 6–10, 11–20, 21–50, 51–100, 101–150, 151–200, 201–250, and "over 250." The citywide total sums the lower bound of each band — it is the minimum number of removals that Google's disclosures confirm, making it a conservative floor. Individual venue figures show the upper bound of their band (e.g. "up to 100 removed") as the closest single-number estimate, since the true count sits somewhere within the range and the upper end is the worst-case. Venues at "over 250" are treated as exactly 250 in all calculations, so their contribution to any total is also a minimum.

Independent investigation. No advertisers, no sponsors.

Scraping approach informed by mb4umi/maps-deleted-reviews.