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B&B owners mulling legal action against Google over fake review

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

May 21, 2016 | 2 min read

The owners of a bed and breakfast in Cornwall are considering legal action against Google after being plagued by a bogus review which the search giant has refused to remove.

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Tim and Amelia Whitaker have been unable to convince Google to remove the critical one star review of their Nearwater B&B despite insisting that the reviewer, going by the moniker "ste dutton", had never stayed there.

Tim Whitaker told the Times the review had been "terribly damaging" and that his complaints to Google Reviews had fallen on deaf ears. "The woman didn’t seem to understand when I told her the review was written by someone who had never stayed at Nearwater."

The paper reports that the Whitakers are seeking legal advice from a libel lawyer, while a Google spokesperson said that although it did not comment on individual cases, if the review had not been removed it "probably does not violate Google's local review policies".

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