Google policy citation
Harassment and hate speech
Reviews containing slurs, threats, or targeted attacks on individuals or protected groups violate Google's policies.
What Google says
“We don't allow content that incites hatred against, promotes discrimination of, or disparages an individual or group on the basis of their race, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or any other characteristic.”See Google's full content policy hub
Qualifies for removal
- →Review uses ethnic or religious slurs against staff
- →Review threatens violence or harm
- →Review targets specific staff member by full name with hateful content
Does NOT qualify
- →Strong language criticizing service (frustration ≠ hate speech)
Evidence that clears this clause
Whoever reads your report can see the review, the reviewer's public profile and your listing. Nothing else. Anything that lives only in your own systems has to be described, not assumed.
- A named staff member targeted personally rather than the service described
- Slurs or attacks on a protected characteristic
- Threats, or language a reasonable reader would take as intimidation
- Repeated posting about the same individual across listings or accounts
The mistake that gets this rejected
Replying in public before filing. A reply keeps the review at the top of the listing, invites escalation, and anything you write becomes part of what future customers read. File first, and keep any reply to one neutral line.
Questions about this clause
Is rudeness enough?
No. A furious, insulting review about the service is still a review about the service. This clause is about attacks on a person, particularly on a protected characteristic, rather than about tone.
What if a staff member is named but not abused?
Naming an employee is not automatically a violation. It moves under this clause when the content targets them personally or exposes them to harassment.
Want this policy applied to your reviews?
Run the free audit and we'll score every review on your listing against this policy and the others. No card, no signup to see the report. You're billed only when Google actually removes a review.
The other policy categories
Full breakdown: Google review policy violations explained · remove fake Google reviews · straight answers · by industry
The other content-policy categories
A review often breaks more than one clause at once, and the strongest filing names the clause with the cleanest evidence rather than all of them.
How this plays out in your trade
The same policy clause gets abused differently depending on the business. These pages cover the attack patterns we see most often per trade.