Google review policies/Misinformation and misrepresentation
Reviewed by Doug Baker, founder · Updated September 23, 2026 · Policy text snapshot August 2026
These two sections reach the claims in red. Google doesn't settle your dispute with the customer.
These two sections reach the health claim. Google doesn't settle your dispute with the customer.
Google's policy for reviews has two sections named Misinformation and Misrepresentation. In our read, neither one covers a review that you say gets your visit wrong, and both turn on what the review claims and who it could mislead or hurt. Google files them as two separate sections under one heading, Fake & Misleading Content & Behavior. We've put them on one page. The conflict-of-interest line in Misrepresentation has its own page.
It's the same dental practice both times, with the same one star and the same annoyed tone. One review makes a health claim and describes no visit. The other describes a visit the owner remembers differently. We made up both of them.
Breaks the policy
Parents, read this before you book. The numbing gel they use on kids here causes permanent nerve damage. Every dentist knows it and they use it anyway. Take your children somewhere else.
MisinformationHealth claim
Breaks it, because it states a misleading health claim as fact, describes no visit, and tells parents to act on it. Appeals like this sometimes succeed, not usually.
Doesn't break it
Quoted $180 for the cleaning when I booked. Charged $240 at checkout and told the X-rays were extra. Nobody mentioned that on the phone. Won't be back.
Does not coverCustomer
Doesn't break it. It's a customer's account of a bill, and Google doesn't decide whose memory of the phone call is right.
The policy
Misinformation is about harm. Google means false or deceptive information that can cause significant harm to people, businesses, and society, and it names three forms, all of them harmful content. A misleading health or medical claim. A misleading claim about voting or another civic process. Content about a news event or public debate that someone manipulated to deceive.
Misrepresentation is about using Google Maps to mislead or deceive others. It has five lines. A false or misleading account of a product or service. Facts distorted or left out to scam people. Information distorted or left out in a way that could unduly sway a reader's decision. Content based on a conflict of interest. And content that tricks readers into giving up confidential information, downloading malicious software, or falling for phishing or baiting. In our read, both sections turn on what the review claims and who it could mislead or hurt. Neither one asks Google to decide whose version of a visit is right.
Breaks the policy
Health claim
A one-star that tells parents a treatment you use harms children. It's stated as fact and no visit sits behind it.
Civic claimDoctored photo
Your shop hosts a polling station, and a review tells voters the station moved across town. Or someone posts a photo of a news event to your profile, doctored to mislead the people who see it.
False descriptionMisleading notice
A review says "closed for good" when your hours show you open. Or it says "no emergencies here" when your listed services include emergency care. In our read this is the narrow end of the section. When a customer says the job went badly, Google doesn't settle whether that account is true.
ScamPhishing
The review says "for refunds, call this number" or gives a link, and the number isn't yours. Misrepresentation names scams and phishing outright.
Customer
A customer's account of a real visit that you say gets the facts wrong. Google keeps those, even when you're sure the customer is mistaken.
Google's glossary gives each section one line. It defines misinformation as false or inaccurate information that may cause significant harm to people, businesses, or society. It defines misrepresentation as misleading claims or omissions made to gain an improper benefit. So the first is about harm and the second is about someone gaining from a deception. Neither definition mentions a customer who remembers the visit differently than you do.
Google doesn't remove a review because you say it's untrue. It removes reviews that break a policy, and these two sections are among the places where untrue becomes a policy question. Whether any review on your profile reaches that point is the wider question, and whether your review has grounds for removal answers it from the start. One line in Misrepresentation covers content based on a conflict of interest. It's about who wrote the review, not what the review says. That line is Google's conflict-of-interest rule, and it has its own page.
Does yours break it?
A customer's account of a visit that you say gets the facts wrong. Maybe the technician was on time, or you quoted the price up front. You may be right, and Google still won't settle it. It says so on its reporting page. It tells owners not to report a review only because they disagree with it or don't like it, and it says Google stays out of disputes between a business and its customers.
Owners who ask on the forums hear the same answer. On the Local Search Forum, Stefan Somborac, a Diamond Product Expert at Sterling Sky, tells them not to argue that a review is inaccurate or a lie, because "Google will not mediate a dispute." In a thread on Google's Business Profile forum, the community member Sergio Mohar told a restaurant owner: "Google evaluates reviews against its published policies rather than determining the factual accuracy of customer disputes."
So a review that repeats what a health authority says is allowed. A bad visit, described politely, is allowed too.
Four kinds of review look like they belong here but go somewhere else.
Accusations. "Scammers." "They stole from me." These fall under a different section, Offensive content, which names unsupported allegations that a business acted unethically or broke the law. That's where we'd argue a bare accusation. What to do with a review that accuses you of a crime walks through it.
Praise with one star. A glowing review with one star attached is a mis-tap, not misinformation. The fix is a reply asking whether the stars were a slip.
Defamation. Defamation is a legal question, not one of Google's review policies. Google runs a separate route: users can report content they think breaks local law. We're pointing you to Google's channel, not giving legal advice. The FTC's Consumer Review Rule is clear on one point. A groundless legal threat made to get a review taken down is itself a violation.
"It's fake." If your real point is that the writer was never a customer, that's fake engagement's question, not this page's. Start with what to do when the review looks fake.
So if a customer tells the visit their way and you disagree, that's a no here, and we'll tell you so. When there are no grounds, that's the answer. Also free.
Here is Misinformation, in full.
Harmful content that contains deceptive or misleading health or medical information.
False, inaccurate, or deceptive information can cause significant harm to individuals, businesses, and society. For that reason, we don’t allow users to post misinformation.
This includes:
- Harmful content that contains deceptive or misleading information about civic processes.
- Harmful content of newsworthy events or civil discourse that has been manipulated to deceive or mislead users.
We do allow content from verifiable authoritative sources.
Google, Maps user-generated content policy, Prohibited & restricted content, section Misinformation
Then Misrepresentation, in full. Its conflict-of-interest line is covered on the other page.
False or misleading accounts of the description or quality of a good or service.
Misleading information can impact the quality of information on Google Maps. For this reason, we don’t allow individuals to use Google Maps to mislead or deceive others, or make misrepresentations.
This includes:
- Distorting or omitting facts to scam other users.
- Distorting or omitting information that could have an undue impact on user decision making.
- Content that is based on a conflict of interest. A conflict of interest may include current or former employment, a contractual or consultory relationship, or other professional or personal affiliations that demonstrate a conflict of interest.
- Posting content that tricks users into revealing confidential information, downloading unwanted or malicious software, or subjects them to phishing or baiting.
Google, Maps user-generated content policy, Prohibited & restricted content, section Misrepresentation
Google's policy text captured August 4, 2026. Section headings re-checked against the live page September 3, 2026.
Only if it breaks one of Google's policies, and these two sections are among the places an untrue claim can. Their lines include harmful health or civic claims, news manipulated to deceive, false accounts of what you sell, and scams or phishing. Google doesn't decide whose version of a visit is true. Its reporting page tells owners not to report a review just because they disagree with it.
We can't answer that. It's a legal question, not a policy one, and Google's review policies don't answer it. Google runs a separate channel where users can report content they believe breaks local law. We can tell you that the channel exists. We can't tell you whether a review is defamatory, and nothing on this page is legal advice.
It depends on whether the review describes a visit. In our read, a bare accusation, "scammers" with no visit described, falls under Offensive content's line on unsubstantiated allegations, not these sections. Misrepresentation's scam line covers a review that scams its readers. The same word inside a detailed account of a real visit usually has no grounds for removal.
File it yourself
You report it from your Business Profile. Open Read reviews, select Report next to the review, pick a reason, and send the report.
Open Read reviews
In your Business Profile, find the review
Select Report, pick a reason
The pick can limit what the appeal may argue
Send it, then wait
Typically several days, Google says.
Decision pendingIf it stays up, the appeal
Report reviewed - no policy violationOne per review, ever. You file it.
Google gives two example reasons, Spam and Profanity, and it doesn't publish the rest of the menu. We haven't seen a documented reason that names misinformation or misrepresentation. In our read Spam is the closest match for these sections, so that's the reason we'd pick. The page on picking the report reason covers the menu in more detail.
The report is the small step. The appeal is where your argument gets made, and you get the one appeal Google allows: one per review, ever. It names a policy. Name Misinformation or Misrepresentation, whichever line the review trips, using Google's exact wording. Quote that line. Then argue the specific claim and the harm it does to a reader who believes it. Don't argue that the review is unfair. If you name a policy that doesn't match your argument, you can waste the one appeal you have.
Google says a report typically takes several days to evaluate. You file the report from your Business Profile and the appeal from Google's Reviews Management Tool. We never submit anything to Google.
Start with the review's own words. Mike Blumenthal, a Diamond Product Expert on Google's Business Profile forum, said it plainly: "Google will not accept external proof from a business owner." In his experience, Google looks only at the review's content and its metadata, not your records. So the evidence in your appeal starts with the review's own words.
Before you report.Screenshot the review and the reviewer's profile now, before you report anything.
The limit.Proof that a customer's account is wrong is not what Google weighs. That covers call recordings, camera footage, and your booking system. On a winery owner's thread, Google never treated the owner's camera footage as relevant, and the review stayed up.
The appeal form is free text with no upload field, so everything above goes in as sentences. We don't publish a removal rate for either section. Google decides.
Or have us analyze it
Type in your business name. We analyze every negative review on the profile against Google's written policies, not just these two sections, because a review can break more than one. We read reviews at 2★ and below that carry at least ten characters of text, and each one comes back with a verdict: strong grounds for removal, possible grounds, or no grounds. Where there are grounds, we prepare the appeal and you file it. If you want the mechanics first, here's how the analysis and the appeal work. Nothing is behind a call.
No email. No account. The answer is free either way.
Each review comes back with one of three:
Strong grounds for removalPossible grounds for removalNo grounds for removal
These two sections aren't always the strongest basis for a review. If the writer has a stake in your business, the conflict-of-interest page linked above covers it. If the review describes no real experience at all, the fake engagement policy applies to it directly. If it describes nothing that happened at your location, look at Google's off-topic rule. All the policy categories Google enforces are on one page.
