John Mueller, a Search Advocate at Google, was asked when you should use the link disavow too. He said on Twitter, "Essentially -- if you weren't buying links, don't disavow."
So don't disavow unless you were buying links in the history of your website.
Here are those tweets:
Essentially -- if you weren't buying links, don't disavow.
— John Mueller (official) · #StaplerLife (@JohnMu) June 22, 2023
Google historically has not been a fan of folks using the disavow file; most recently, they doubled down on that. Prior to that, John Mueller from Google blasted an agency for using a disavow file. Gary Illyes from Google reiterated his disavow advice saying at PubCon not to use it. He repeated that it hurts more than it helps for the most part. Previously, Google said disavow if you have a manual action.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
