Report a violation

You can report behavior that you consider to be a violation of Google's Terms of Service or program policies. Violations include:

  • Spam, malware, and phishing
  • Violence
  • Hate speech
  • Harassment, bullying, and threats
  • Sexually explicit material
  • Child exploitation
  • Impersonation
  • Personal and confidential information
  • Illegal activities
  • Copyright infringement

Report abuse

You can report abusive content from your computer.

Docs, Sheets, or Slides file

To report a violation:

  1. Open a file.
  2. Click the Help menu.
  3. Select Report abuse/copyright.
  4. Choose the type of abuse found in the file. Each abuse type has a description to help you determine if the file has violated our policies.
  5. Click Submit Abuse Report.
Google Sites

You can report abusive content on websites created with Google Sites and hosted in Google Drive. Some violations of our program policies include:

To report abuse directly from a Google Site, click Report abuse at the bottom of the page.

Report images, PDFs, and other content in Google Drive

You can report PDFs, images, or other content stored in Google Drive.

To report a violation:

  1. On a computer, go to drive.google.com.
  2. To open the file, double-click.
  3. At the top, click More More.
  4. Click Report abuse.
  5. Choose the type of abuse found in the file. Each abuse type has a description to help you determine if the file has violated our policies.
  6. Click Submit Abuse Report.

Reports don’t guarantee removal of the file or any other action on Google’s part. Content that you disagree with or deem inappropriate is not always a violation of Google’s Terms of Service or program policies.

Actions we may take on abusive material

  • Remove the file from the account.
  • Limiting who can view the file. People will see a warning before viewing the file and it will be hidden from people who are using Safe Browse and SafeSearch.
  • Disable access to one or more Google products.
  • Delete the Google Account.
  • Report illegal materials to appropriate law enforcement authorities.

Appeal a violation

If a file you own has a violation notice, you can request a review of the violation.

Mary is a Docs & Drive expert and author of this help page. Leave her feedback below about the page.

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