alt Hacker NewsIt should be noted that defamation law has a very low threshold in Germany, to the point that businesses routinely sue Google Maps users for less-than-5-stars reviews. Google had to change their display of reviews because of this.
Three stars review is taken down for "libel": https://support.google.com/maps/thread/367778263/google-maps...
HNer gets a legal threat after saying that he didn't like a doctor: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44734895
Google maps german policy: https://support.google.com/contributionpolicy/answer/1699727...
Meanwhile, service in Germany is still rather poor (especially if you have children), but at least no one can complain!
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> HNer gets a legal threat after saying that he didn't like a doctor: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44734895
This post is written by an LLM, and possibly a complete fabrication.
Here's an article from outside the tech sector, which I am linking to as a corroboration since this is quite surprising for those of us unfamiliar with German law.
https://www.thelocal.de/20260504/how-a-google-maps-update-ex...
See also: Germany's leader filing hundreds of criminal complaints against people who insult him on social media:
https://rmx.news/article/germany-chancellor-merz-quietly-fil...
You cannot get sued for a review just because it's lower than 5 stars. But of course if you write something like "I found a dead cockroach in my pizza", or "I hard that they don't clean the dishes enough" in a review without proof, that's defamation. And it doesn't matter if you give 1 or 5 stars with the review.