Google policy citation
Restricted and illegal content
Reviews referencing regulated goods, illegal activity, or content Google restricts outright — a narrow category, but an unambiguous one when it applies.
What Google says
“We don't allow content that facilitates the sale of regulated goods and services, or content that promotes illegal activity. Content that depicts or promotes dangerous or illegal acts will be removed.”See Google's full content policy hub
Qualifies for removal
- →Review solicits or offers regulated goods through your listing
- →Review accuses the business of a crime while promoting how to obtain something illegal
- →Review contains content Google restricts outright, including sexually explicit material
- →Review is being used as a channel to advertise an unlawful service
Does NOT qualify
- →A customer alleging you did something wrong, without any restricted content
- →Strong accusations that stay within ordinary complaint territory
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.
- Content about regulated goods — alcohol, tobacco, firearms, pharmaceuticals, gambling — outside a legitimate account of your service
- Sexually explicit material
- Content promoting illegal activity
- Attempts to solicit or sell through the review
The mistake that gets this rejected
Assuming that any mention of a regulated product qualifies. A bar review that mentions drinks is a normal review. The clause is about content that itself breaks the restriction, not about the industry you happen to be in.
Questions about this clause
We're a licensed dispensary. Are reviews mentioning our products removable?
No. Reviews describing a lawful transaction with a lawful business are normal reviews. This clause targets content that is itself restricted.
How fast does Google act on explicit content?
This category tends to move faster than the policy clauses that need context, because the violation is self-evident. There is still no published SLA.
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.