12 review platforms and how each one handles a removal request

01/ 03What do all review platforms have in common?

Three things. The platform, not the business, makes the decision. A report has to name a specific policy the review violates, with evidence where you have it. And an honest bad experience, however harsh, almost never qualifies. Beyond that, the policies differ more than most owners expect, which is why the same review can come down on one site and stay up on another.

If you are still working out which of these sites matter for your trade, start with the review sites that matter for your business.

02/ 03How does each platform handle removal requests?

1. Google

Who can report: the verified owner or manager of the Business Profile, and any Maps user. Main policy grounds: fake engagement, conflicts of interest (owners, staff, competitors), off-topic content, harassment, hate speech, personal information and impersonation.

2. Yelp

Who can report: the business through Yelp for Business, and any logged-in Yelp user. Main policy grounds: conflicts of interest, reviews not based on the reviewer’s own experience, inappropriate content and private information. Yelp says plainly that mere suspicion usually is not enough and asks for specific evidence; a decision can take several days. Yelp also runs recommendation software that hides some reviews without any report, which is a separate system. We explain why Yelp behaves differently in Yelp review removal: why it is different.

3. Trustpilot

Who can report: the business from its Trustpilot Business account, and consumers. Main policy grounds: harmful or illegal content, personal information, advertising or promotion, a review about a different business, and a review not based on a genuine experience (a current employee, a competitor, a paid reviewer, or an experience that is not recent). Reports on the genuine-experience ground are run through Trustpilot’s detection software, and Trustpilot penalizes misuse of the flagging tool. More detail in Trustpilot review removal: what comes down.

4. Facebook

Who can report: Page admins and any Facebook user. Main policy grounds: Meta’s Community Standards, which cover harassment, hate speech, spam and fake accounts. Facebook reviews the report and may remove the recommendation. A recommendation that is only a star rating cannot be reported.

5. Tripadvisor

Who can report: owners and any traveller. Main policy grounds: reviews that are not first-hand, more than one review per experience, reviews by people connected to the property or a competitor, information quoted from other sources, and any attempt to use a review to pressure a business.

6. Glassdoor

Who can report: employers and any Glassdoor member. Main policy grounds: breaches of Glassdoor’s Community Guidelines, such as fraudulent or incentivized reviews, and confidential material such as trade secrets. Glassdoor says it never accepts payment to remove reviews and stays neutral in factual disputes, unless a review is clearly false on reliable, independent information.

7. Amazon

Who can report: shoppers and sellers. Main policy grounds: reviews that are really seller, order or shipping feedback; comments about price or availability; compensated or incentivized reviews; promotional content; and any review designed to manipulate. Note that Amazon enforces against the seller too: if a business partner or agency manipulates reviews, the seller faces action even without its knowledge.

8. Apple App Store

Who can report: developers with the right App Store Connect role (for example Account Holder, Admin, App Manager or Customer Support), and customers on the App Store. Main grounds: reviews that are offensive or otherwise inappropriate; the AI-generated reviews summary can be reported too. The customer is not told when you report. The better lever is often a short public reply, which every future customer can read.

9. Google Play

Who can report: developers and users. Main policy grounds: the Google Play Comment Posting Policy, which covers spam, off-topic, profane and hateful content and ratings meant to manipulate an app’s score. A Google Play specialist makes the decision, and a review whose report is rejected cannot be reported again.

10. Healthgrades

Who can report: anyone, including the provider; the team then checks the comment again against the guidelines. Main policy grounds: libellous, harassing or threatening content; obscenity; misleading or fraudulent content; personal information; impersonation; brand or drug endorsements; and mentions of legal matters or proceedings. Written comments are checked before they appear, but Healthgrades says the star rating counts on the profile straight away.

11. Avvo

Who can report: attorneys and users. Main policy grounds: the review must describe the reviewer’s own experience with a lawyer they hired or consulted; reviews of the other side’s lawyer, second-hand accounts and accusations of criminal activity are not posted; name-calling, threats and personal information are not allowed. Avvo says it does not verify reviews or take sides in factual disputes.

12. Houzz

Who can report: professionals and members. Main policy grounds: the reviewer is connected to the business, the review is not about a real project with that professional, it is inaccurate, it hides compensation, it contains external links or mentions other companies, or the same household or company has already reviewed.

03/ 03What should a business keep in mind on Amazon, Healthgrades and the App Store?

On Amazon, a review that is really about delivery or the seller rather than the product is outside the review guidelines, and offering a refund or replacement for a changed review is itself treated as manipulation. On Healthgrades, a provider replying publicly should not confirm that the reviewer is a patient or discuss their care; in the US that can raise HIPAA questions, which are for your compliance adviser, not this article. On the App Store, Apple acts on reviews that are offensive or inappropriate, and for a review that is simply wrong a short, factual public reply usually does more, because the next customer reads both.

If you would rather not handle this yourself, our free review audit sorts a profile into reviews that violate the platform’s policy and reviews that do not, and you pay only after a removal is verified. We never need your login and the platform always has the final word.