Last month someone thought it would be funny to submit a depiction of a Bugdroid pissing on an Apple in Maps Maker. Google quickly took down the edit after images started spreading across the web, but it isn't stopping there. After experiencing an uptick in spam over the past few months, the company will now temporarily turn off the ability for users to submit Google Maps edits.

The shutdown will take effect tomorrow, May 12th. A notice is greeting users who head over to google.com/mapmaker.

It may surprise you to know that Google's prior system for monitoring changes wasn't automatic. Most submissions were immediately approved, and a Googler would eventually come back and review the edit manually. Users were encouraged to keep an eye on their peers as well.

Now additions only go through after a human has approved the submission, which means the backlog has grown to an uncomfortable length. Rather than continue to subject users to extensive wait times, Google will disable the ability to submit edits entirely until it comes up with a more tenable solution. How long that will take is anybody's guess.

Source: Google Product Forums