Federal regulators are looking to crack down on fake reviews and other deceptive internet practices.
The Federal Trade Commission proposed a new rule Friday that would ban paying for reviews, suppressing honest reviews, selling fake social media engagement and more. Businesses would also be prohibited from running company-controlled websites that claim to be independent, and other deceptive practices like “review hijacking,” which makes reviews for one product appear like they were written for significantly different ones.
“Our proposed rule on fake reviews shows that we’re using all available means to attack deceptive advertising in the digital age,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement. “The rule would trigger civil penalties for violators and should help level the playing field for honest companies.”
Estimates about the portion of reviews online that are fake range from 4% to more than 30%, according to researchers at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles’ Anderson School of Management. According to 2021 numbers from the World Economic Forum and CHEQ, fake reviews impact some $152 billion in global spending each year.
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