Google quietly added a way for users to flag a business owner’s reply to a review, rather than just the review itself. The option, labeled “Report owner response,” surfaced inside Google Business Profiles and Google Local listings and was not accompanied by any formal Google announcement.
Reviewers can now report a reply as off topic, as containing profanity, or as bullying and harassment aimed at a specific person. The tool also covers discrimination or hate speech based on identity and responses that expose personal information such as an address or phone number. A separate option exists for legal complaints.
Vinay Toshniwal and Amy Toman separately posted screenshots of the option on LinkedIn, which is how it reached wider notice rather than through any Google statement. Toman wrote that she has previously seen owner replies that criticized a reviewer’s looks or exposed banking details, issues her team had to flag manually through Google’s forum.
The addition turns an owner’s reply into moderatable content in its own right. A combative response to a bad review now carries the same removal risk the review itself has always carried.
Barry Schwartz reported the discovery for Search Engine Roundtable in mid-August 2026, citing LinkedIn posts from Vinay Toshniwal and Amy Toman.
