{"id":48357,"date":"2020-01-09T22:56:40","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T21:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/?p=48357"},"modified":"2021-12-14T10:36:32","modified_gmt":"2021-12-14T09:36:32","slug":"facebook-and-ebay-take-steps-to-combat-fake-product-reviews-after-warning-from-uk-competition-authority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/2020\/01\/facebook-and-ebay-take-steps-to-combat-fake-product-reviews-after-warning-from-uk-competition-authority\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook and eBay take steps to combat fake product reviews, after warning from UK competition authority"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Facebook and eBay have agreed to combat fake reviews on their platforms in response to pressure from the UK\u2019s Competition and Market Authority (CMA), according to TechCrunch<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June, the CMA said it had found evidence of a \u201cthriving marketplace for fake and misleading online reviews\u201d on the platforms. It found over 100 eBay listings and 26 Facebook groups with offers to provide fake reviews for products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several months after the CMA notice, the UK consumer rights group Which?<\/em> said that Facebook had failed to address the fake reviews, but noted that eBay had already made some progress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday, the CMA said Facebook had removed<\/a> 188 accounts and 24 groups, while eBay had banned 140 users that had been selling fake reviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regulator says billions of pounds are spent in the UK each year based on online reviews, promoting an illegal market for fakes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement, CMA chief executive Andrea Coscelli said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Fake reviews are really damaging to shoppers and businesses alike. Millions of people base their shopping decisions on reviews, and if these are misleading or untrue, then shoppers could end up being misled into buying something that isn’t right for them \u2014 leaving businesses who play by the rules missing out.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They said that in addition to removing accounts, Facebook has now pledged to put \u201cmore robust systems\u201d in place to filter out fake reviews, and eBay plans to bolster existing systems to identify and remove fake reviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re pleased that Facebook and eBay are doing the right thing by committing to tackle this problem and helping to keep their sites free from posts selling fake reviews,\u201d Coscelli said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also clarified that they\u2019re not suggesting either platform is intentionally allowing the proliferation of fake reviews. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the CMA said it had found new instances of fake reviews on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. The regulator said those reviews are now being investigated by the company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from the erosion of public trust, there are few potential consequences for platforms that fail to police fake reviews. A new set of proposals from the UK government to regulate tech companies could alter the landscape. But for now, calling the public\u2019s attention to the issue could be the best way for regulators to encourage platforms to take action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Natalie Hitchins, from Which?<\/em>, praised the move<\/a> but said there’s more work to be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good that Facebook and eBay have taken steps to improve after the regulator intervened but it is vital they continue to identify and shut down these groups, and put measures in place so that they are completely eradicated.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo by ebayinc [CC BY-SA (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0)]
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facebook and eBay have agreed to combat fake reviews on their platforms in response to pressure from the UK\u2019s Competition and Market Authority (CMA), according to TechCrunch.\u00a0 In June, the CMA said it had found evidence of a \u201cthriving marketplace for fake and misleading online reviews\u201d on the platforms. It found over 100 eBay listings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":48359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[7920],"class_list":["post-48357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-finance","tag-facebook-en-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}