The disavow tool is a Search Console feature that lets you upload a list of links or domains and ask Google to ignore them when assessing your site. Google describes it as an advanced feature that can harm your site if misused, and says you should only use it when you have a considerable number of spammy or paid links and those links have caused, or are likely to cause, a manual action. For most sites that never happens.
What Google says
Two conditions, both required: a considerable number of spammy, artificial or low-quality links pointing to your site, and those links having caused a manual action or being likely to. Google adds that in most cases it can assess which links to trust without guidance, so most sites will not need the tool. Its staff have gone further in public and said that disavowing tends to hurt more than it helps.
Why owners reach for it anyway
Because SEO tools flag toxic links in red and it feels like something must be done. Because a competitor's link profile looks cleaner. Because a traffic drop needs an explanation and spammy links are visible. None of those meets Google's conditions. Google's systems already ignore the vast majority of junk links, so disavowing them changes nothing, and disavowing links that were actually helping does real damage.
When it is the right tool
You bought links, or an agency did on your behalf, in volume, and Search Console shows a manual action for unnatural links. Then you remove what you can, disavow what you cannot, and file a reconsideration request. That is the scenario the tool was built for and essentially the only one.
What to do about bad links otherwise
Nothing. Check the manual actions report occasionally. Read your backlink profile for what it says about your anchor text and where your real links come from. If a sudden burst of foreign spam links appears, note the date and watch rankings; almost always nothing happens, because Google has already discounted them.
Sources
Where this shows up in the tracker
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Related terms
Toxic backlinks
Toxic backlinks, spammy backlinks and high spam-score links are all names for links that an SEO tool has flagged as coming from low-quality or manipulative sites. The score is the tool's estimate, not Google's judgement. Google says it ignores most such links on its own, so a red number in a report is usually information, not an emergency.
Link spam
Link spam is Google's term for links created primarily to manipulate search rankings. Its spam policies name buying or selling links for ranking purposes, excessive link exchanges, automated link building, forum and comment links stuffed with keywords, and paid placements that do not block ranking credit. The consequence is usually that the links stop counting; in serious cases it is a manual action against the site that acquired them.
Negative SEO
Negative SEO is any attempt to lower another site's search rankings. The version people fear most, pointing thousands of spam links at a competitor, rarely works, because Google largely ignores links it judges to be spam and has said the disavow tool was not built for this. The attacks that do real damage are different: hacking, scraping, fake reviews, and bot traffic that distorts click data.
Backlink
A backlink is a link from someone else's website to a page on yours. Search engines treat it as a vote: the more trusted and relevant the site casting it, the more it counts. Links are still among the strongest ranking signals Google has, which is exactly why buying them is against Google's rules and why earning them is slow.