Tripadvisor turns off reviews for Russia, Ukraine attractions

Tripadvisor has turned off its user reviews in Russia and Ukraine over the high volume of politically-charged reviews. Photo / Nikolai Vorobyev, Unsplash

Leading travel websites have shut off reviews for attractions across Russia and Belarus after being flooded with bogus reviews, protesting the war in Ukraine.

Tripadvisor, the world's largest travel website, has placed a notification on some pages telling users that comments have been disabled:

"Due to a recent event that has attracted media attention and has caused an influx of review submissions that do not describe a first-hand experience," reads the notice.

The website said that the feature would be reinstated soon and apologised to travellers wishing to leave feedback.

Unesco-heritage sites and other attractions across Russia have had user reviews turned off on Tripadvisor. Photo / Screenshot, tripadvisor.com

The Moscow Kremlin and St Petersburg Hermitage are among the Unesco-listed attractions which had their comments targeted.

Tripadvisor recently celebrated the milestone of passing 1 billion reviews in February, as the world's largest travel reviews network for restaurants and hotels, with a large user base in Russia.

This made the website a rich target for 'hacktivists' wishing to protest the invasion of Ukraine. Over the weekend social media platforms such as Twitter reported that their services were being restricted in Russia and the Ukraine, leading many to spill over into the comments sections of other websites.

We believe people should have free and open access to the Internet, which is particularly important during times of crisis. https://t.co/xnm4xtzpKd

— Twitter Public Policy (@Policy) February 26, 2022

A spokesperson for Tripadvisor said that they were "shocked and saddened by the heart-breaking scenes we are all witnessing in Ukraine, and our thoughts are with every victim of this invasion."

However, the website was "first and foremost a travel guidance platform" and the influx of bogus reviews were a challenge to travellers who rely on reviews.

On Thursday the website announced that the Tripadvisor Foundation will match all donations to World Central Kitchen's Ukraine relief response, up to US$250,000.

Tripadvisor isn't the only travel website which has found its comment section increasingly politicised.

On Tuesday, Google confirmed that it had begun temporarily blocking user-generated reviews of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian locations left on Google Maps.

The platform was also "temporarily blocking new reviews, photos, and videos" from the area, a Google Maps spokesperson told the Herald.