FTC bans fake online reviews, inflated social media influence; rule takes effect in October

Comments

• alyaza@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Along with prohibiting reviews written by nonhumans, the FTC’s rule also forbids companies from paying for either positive or negative reviews to falsely boost or denigrate a product. It also forbids marketers from exaggerating their own influence by, for example, paying for bots to inflate their follower count.

  Violations of the rule could result in fines being issued for each violation, according to the rule. This means that for an e-commerce site with hundreds of thousands of reviews, penalties for fake or manipulated reviews could quickly add up.

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• FlashMobOfOne@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  LOL at the comments suggesting nothing should be done because this is hard to enforce.

  That reasoning is why we don’t have legal abortion, universal health care, a living wage, or term limits.

  Some things may be hard to do. It’s no excuse not to try.

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  • GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    For sure. It’ll never be enforced completely, but it gives teeth to go after some big offenders.

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• umami_wasbi@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  So how are they going to detect, proof, and enforce?

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  • alyaza@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    unclear (they don’t tend to announce enforcement mechanisms in these and it’s not a final rule until it’s a final rule), but it’s not like the FTC is lacking in power as an agency

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    • SineSwiper@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Well, that is until the Chevron decision got knocked down.

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  • Mongostein@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Probably by taking down the companies doing it rather than the people using them. Just set up an account and ask around for where to buy some likes.

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    • umami_wasbi@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Isn’t emtrapment illegal?

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• algorithmae@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Their heart is in the right place, but good luck doing anything about it

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  • altima_neo@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Gotta start somewhere I guess. And it’s a path in the right direction, at least.

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  • Kissaki@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    it’s not hard to find them when they’re selling fake reviews as a service

    The article teaser beginning should make that clear as well

    Amazon sued more than 10,000 Facebook group administrators in July 2022

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• Gaywallet@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Extremely based, good job FTC

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• lps@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  She’s killing it! Bravo! someone in government with a moral compass🙌

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• Moriarty@startrek.website ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Lina Khan is fantastic.

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• prole@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Wish this woman could be our president.

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• AngryishHumanoid@reddthat.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  How long before Trump publicly rants about this?

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  • alyaza@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    i’m honestly not sure Trump knows anything about the FTC, and if his campaign was smart these are the kinds of things they’d propose instead of “IVF should be illegal but also you’re a degenerate for not having children”

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  • Gsus4@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I can already see it now “They’re gonna give everyone healthcare, they’re gonna jail review scammers, they’re gonna let anyone join a union. The monsters.”

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