A small business owner in B.C. is demanding answers from Google after his company's profile was suddenly disabled without warning.

A small business owner in B.C. is demanding answers from one of the biggest companies in the world after his Google Business Profile was suddenly disabled without warning.

Jonathan Guy, a Navy veteran who has lived in B.C. for 17 years, is the owner of Chilliwack-based Veteran Heating and Cooling Inc.

Guy used his 15 years of experience in the HVAC industry to open Veteran in 2023, and things were going swimmingly until he received a message from Google on Feb. 6, 2025

“Google unexpectedly disabled our Google Business Profile without any prior warning or explanation,” Guy told Daily Hive. “We received an email stating that the account was disabled and no longer visible to customers.

“They hold an undeniable monopoly over online search and business visibility. Let’s be honest — show me a person who doesn’t use Google. The platform has become the ‘gatekeeper’ of customer traffic, revenue, and livelihoods. So, when Google makes an inaccurate or unfair decision, it can destroy businesses overnight. This affects not only owners but also employees, suppliers, and subcontractors who rely on steady work.”

“Approximately one month after submitting our appeal with all the required documentation, we received a rejection notice. We feel the suspension and the appeal decision were made by AI because a real person can easily research our company to see if it’s real. AI assumes that the business isn’t legit.”

  • wampus@lemmy.caEnglish
    3·
    4 hours ago

    Yeah, Google’s monopoly is a problem. Wonder if there’d be any real appetite for a (potentially govt supported) index for Canadian businesses, which could link through to those businesses public websites (if they have them) — and/or just serve as a host for a basic business brochure / info set.

    I mean, businesses need to register within jurisdictions in order to operate – why not have those jurisdictions have a semi federated setup of sites to host indexes for consumers / b2b. Publicize it to the general public, and ensure that businesses let their own employees know about it (so that local workers, know there are local options to look up shops / businesses). You could connect the jurisdictional sites via federation to make it a “one stop site” for Canadians to go to for local business references/info, even as they move around to different areas.

    If this lemmy site is legit in its costs being like $1.10/user/year, I imagine our govt could do similar for similarly low costs – and offset it by having some modest local advertising options on the sites. You’d basically setup a class of ‘business’ users that’d have a bit more of a portal, and a landing page associated with their brand, where they could post basic information up / connect with potential customers. Have the business registration process in different municipalities / jurisdictions be involved in administration of those business accounts. Regular consumers could either be left as read only, or could potentially have accounts setup for more engagement – perhaps with some method of checking the person’s general geo location to root out some malicious sorts / potential foreign influences.

    I don’t think we have anything like this, but… I’d love to see it pushed by some politicians, personally.

  • sndmn@lemmy.caEnglish
    15·
    1 day ago

    If only there was a sign that google is not a good organization.

    Their motto used to be “Don’t be evil” and it no longer is their motto. Big fucking hint right there.

  • BCsven@lemmy.caEnglish
    10·
    1 day ago

    Those dads that had to take a photos of their kid to show doctor via telehealth got wrecked by Google. Flagged him as CSAMmer canceled his account, notified police. Police eventually understood the situation, but they still struggled with Google to get access to email and family photo albums they had stored. I believe the one dad could not get his account back.