this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2026
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“Google actively suppresses carceral information, narratives, and digital trace data related to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) detention facilities,” wrote Muira McCammon, a professor at Tulane University’s Department of Communication who has been scraping and analyzing self-reported accounts of ICE imprisonment posted to Google Maps since last year.

Much of this record is now permanently deleted, erasing detailed testimony of people ingested by the U.S. deportation machine.

...

“My friend’s dad was sentenced to one month in jail,” read one review. “He served the time and then was moved to this facility for another 3 months. How is it not illegal to hold someone 3x longer than what they were sentenced to serve?”

A Spanish language review McCammon collected read, “You can barely hear the detainee when you make a phone call.”

Other posts reflect what apparent former detainees described as poor conditions, such as “The place is infested with roaches crawling all over the inmates body there,” or “Very bad experience i spent 2 months in this hell . . . 99% of staff is cruel and racist.”

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[–] Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 24 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

This isn't new, Google has been suppressing critical reviews and promoting other corporations forever. We're the product, and we should stay quiet and not speak up

[–] EldestMalk@lemmy.world 7 points 4 weeks ago

You're here to make them money. Now shut up and be a good cog or they'll replace you with a more compliant model.

[–] Teknikal@anarchist.nexus 12 points 4 weeks ago

Google let's the businesses/locations moderate their own reviews, so the whole system is pretty pointless. Bad reviews won't last a day.

[–] betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)
[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 4 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Argh, did it not actually link the damned article?

Here you go: https://theintercept.com/2026/07/20/google-maps-reviews-ice-detention-centers/

Edit: I put the URL in the image link URL rather than the actual URL. It should now be correct.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

What exactly were those people expecting? It's Google maps business reviews, not a congressional complaint.

[–] KelvarCherry@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 4 weeks ago

aaaaand they were reviewing the business. detention facilities are run by contractors.