Last January, I’ve just came upon several newbie users in the Philippines who have accumulated over a thousand edits within a few days, adding a thousand POIs, which I discovered by comparing coverage, are more or less copyright violations from Google Maps (with some POIs being at completely odd spots, someting usual with GMaps in some places). I’ve been able to clean up a bunch of their edits, particularly those from a user named JP Baje and another working for a new ride-hail service in the Philippines, and asked the user about their source, but they never replied, and with their activity continuing unabated despite concerns from other fellow mappers back home, I have asked the DWG to have one of them blocked until they have read a message from the DWG addressing concerns. The other one hasn’t been blocked, and has stopped editing, but I’m trying to clean up their edits within my favourite locations while I’m trying to focus with mapping in Canada.

I have no idea why these fly-by-night editors would spring out here with the sole purpose of filling areas of several cities with POIs without providing their source, adding them one by one that make it hard to revert them in one huge sweep and disappearing later when the damage is done, but I think long and strict lockdowns (such as those in the Philippines) are driving this kind of mapping because in such situation, you can’t just go out of home – even within your neighbourhood – without having to present some form of travel authorization from the local government, or you’re a member of a demographic that is likely to get infected with COVID-19 (which in the Philippines, includes those under 14, above 60, or having a serious health condition as of the May 2021 quarantine restrictions) and I assume these users involved are unlikely to have been in those locations, before or during the mass quarantines. Any thoughts?