Google recently added a new tool for webmasters called the Disavow link tool. This update confirms that certain links can negatively impact your website.
This tool allows webmasters to deny the value or lack thereof to their web pages. Disavowing links has caused quite a controversy in the SEO community causing many to speculate whether this tool is simply Google gathering a crowd sourced list of websites in link building networks.
While it is too soon to know the true impact of disavow links, we have began testing the impact removing links will have on a number of test sites. Expect an update in the next few week.s