No, Google does not notify the author of the review if their review has been reported or removed.The only individuals who receive notifications about review removals are managers and owners of the Google Business Profile (if they have notifications enabled).
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Enabling Review Removal Notifications
As a business manager or owner of the Google Business Profile, you can enable email notifications regarding your profile’s reviews. To so so, just sign in to Google, and then go to the management dashboard.
Once there, click the 3-dots to view the settings dropdown, and click the Notifications option.
Afterwards, you’ll be able to toggle review notifcations.
Once toggled, you’ll also receive updates about reviews that have been removed from your Google Business Profile, which (if successful) will like something like this…
Why Google (Probably) Chose Not to Notify Reviewers
Although there are no laws directly preventing Google from notifying reviewers, there are a couple practical reasons that likely guided their decision-making process:
Reason #1: Safety & anti-retaliation
Review disputes would likely result in emotional or even hostile interactions. If Google were to notify reviewers, and share who reported the content, it could lead to direct retaliation against business owners or employees. This would potentially result in Google being forced to mediate the situation, which would like create negative sentiment regarding the Google Business Profile product.
Reason #2: Reduced friction & support issues
Additionally, if Google decided to notify reviewers, it would likely create:
- More customer support cases
- More disputes directed at Google
- A less stable review ecosystem
Silent moderation simplifies the process and minimizes unnecessary conflict. Due to support cases alone, Google would significantly increase their support requests.
When to Report a Google Review
If you believe the review violates policies, you should report the review to Google as there is not downside to reporting reviews. Google provides a couple options for reporting reviews, which are as follows:
Upon reporting a review as a manager or owner of a Google Business Profile, you will be able to review that status of the report by using the Google Review Management Tool, which tracks whether the report request was approved, denied, or still in-progress.
If your initial report gets denied, you can escalate the review to support for further review (as pictured above).
