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Federal Trade Commission Chair Lena Khan speaks during the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., April 21, 2021.
Graeme Jennings | bloomberg | Getty Images
Federal Trade Commission on Friday Proposal A new rule seeks to ban fake reviews online, marking its most aggressive move yet to thwart review scams.
The proposed rule would prohibit companies from buying or selling fake reviews and suppress negative reviews, as well as “review hijacking,” which involves reusing positive reviews from one item for use in other listings, and can make new or questionable products appear trustworthy. It also bars company executives or insiders from leaving reviews of their products or services without disclosing their relationships.
“The rule will result in civil penalties for violators and should help level the playing field for honest businesses,” Samuel Levine, director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Office of Consumer Protection, said in a statement.
Fake reviews and review abuse is an ongoing problem for online platforms such as AmazonAnd Google And howling. Bad actors often rely on fake reviews to boost their products in search results and increase sales. In some cases, companies offer to pay users to leave negative reviews on a competing product, a tactic called “sabotage review”.
As review scams become more common, a shadow economy has sprung up for online businesses promising to provide companies with fake reviews, often in order to Less than a few dollars piece. Some of these companies advertise their services through their website, while others set up invite-only Facebook groups and Telegram chats.
And Amazon, which is struggling to combat fake reviews in the third-party market, has increasingly taken fake review moderators and Facebook group managers to court. It also uses a combination of human moderators and machine learning tools to try to detect suspicious activity on its site.
The agency said the FTC has increasingly cracked down on fake reviews because they “deceive consumers who are looking for genuine feedback on a product or service and undermine honest business.” In February, the Federal Trade Commission filed its first case against the hijacking review when fined Bountiful Co. Nature’s Bounty, which makes the popular multivitamin brand, for using this tactic to boost its Amazon listings.
Agency submitted Several other cases In recent years against companies that Fake reviews are used To sell products online, and banned their users than leaving negative comments.
In its announcement Friday, the FTC acknowledged that the widespread exposure of generative artificial intelligence is likely to make it easier for bad actors to write fake reviews. CNBC previously reported that some people are already using AI chatbots to write reviews on Amazon.
The proposed rule does not take effect immediately. There is a 60-day period for public comment, and then the agency may re-evaluate the rule based on the feedback it receives. After some time, the FTC will vote on the final version of its proposal.
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