FTC bans fake online reviews, inflated social media influence; rule takes effect in October
FTC bans fake online reviews, inflated social media influence; rule takes effect in October
I can't think of how you would enforce it either, but I do think there's value in putting a line in the sand. It makes it clear that yes, this is crossing a line into illegal activity. Will everyone care and stop? No. I do believe some will, though, as a result of this.
Yeah, I see this probably like using tax law to catch a mobster. Maybe they committed other worse crimes, but you don't have evidence. Maybe you can prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that they paid for reviews or followers or whatever else. It probably won't stop every instance, but it does give an ability to stop abusers and gives an incentive to not use these tactics, because it could be proven and held against you in the future.
get those whistles blowing
Kinda. This is lip-service. Impossible to enforce and yet the gains of fake reviews are so high.
You know it's true because Samantha J of Chicago, Il says that my comments are "100% truthful and A++++". And Barry E of Austin, TX says that I am "Easily a golden god and should be respected." Also Jessica J of Pittsburgh, PA says that I'm "A fantastic lover and totally doesn't have a weird shaped penis that looks like a upside down Florida.".
Seems like with a lack of effective enforcement it could make things worse in some ways, since it would give a competitive advantage to the marketers corrupt enough to willingly break the law and try to get away with it. Also if there's a situation where this kind of fraud is basically required to be competitive, it could allow authorities to selectively go after people for illegitimate reasons with this as a pretext.
Lina Khan is a hero.
The single best thing Biden has done.
Here's her interview with Senator Bernie Sanders
Lina Khan is PRECISELY why SCOTUS overturned Chevron. This will just get challenged in that district with a single Trump judge then get pushed up to SCOTUS to be ruled unconstitutional.
I have banned my waistline from getting any larger.
This is not the same thing. In your case, only you are responsible and accountable for your actions. So no one but you can do anything with real penality. Now, if the FTC banned you from growing your waistline (wrong govt dept, i know), then there would be a potential fiscal penalty and maybe even prison with enough violations.
The right sarcastic comment should have been: I have banned my cute dog from jumping on people when they come over. because we know that i’ll fuss at her, but never punish her harshly.
if the FTC banned you from growing your waistline (wrong govt dept, i know)
I hope, there's no right government department for this. 😅
To take effect in October. 2033.
The best way to get that rolling is to try something. Doing nothing and complaining about it certainly won't help. Sure, changing your diet and exercising might not prevent all growth of your waistline, but it'll probably be able to slow it down at minimum. With enough effort and time it might even shrink it. It's better to start trying literally anything than just sitting back and saying no one should try because it's not going to be perfect.
(This comment applies to things other than your waistline.)
I freaking love how Lina Khan is running the FTC. She might be my new favorite cabinet member of all time.
She's a bad ass.
Yeah. We'll see.
That's great and all, I hope they actually manage to enforce it though.
Doesn't it ever feel to you like they've just collectively stopped making good products by and large and you have to really just, hunt disproportionately hard to find something good and you don't know what to believe anymore when you have a product related decision to make because everything is atroturfed to fuck?
I'm sorry, Amazon complained about fake reviews!? They know what site they run right, and more to the point the behavior they almost explicitly condone on that site?
they actually dont condone it, its just that the rate they come in is faster than they can filter out.
for example a while back, Amazon removed Ravpower, Aukey, Mpow from Amazon products list due to companies asking basically paying buyers ti give good reviews. its why those companies basically were deleted off in the U.S market allowing for companies like Anker to rapidly grow.
if you live in the bay area in california, there is a well known seller who frequents tech swaps/flea markets selling the products of these companies for very cheap.
Oh they absolutely condone it, both by frequently ignoring reports of fake reviews and occasionally even banning the reporter and by allowing companies to do that thing where they swap product pages to get a bunch of free reviews from something completely different.
Why do they need to filter?
Can't they easily tell that an account bought a certain product? Only allow those accounts to make a review, and only accounts that have made a certain number of purchases before.
Oh good, now that that's sorted out we can read reviews without worry.
Sure. But can they enforce it? Chevron says maybe not.
I know what you mean, but let's not misinform accidentally. Chevron Deference is the decision in which courts defer to the expertise of the federal agencies when statutes are vague or otherwise ambiguous. Loper Bright is the decision that overturns it and is a power grab by the supreme court.
Court rulings aside, how do you actually detect this for enforcement?
Like everything else. Complaint -> lawsuit -> discovery
Maybe we can start with sellers that swap items and keep their reviews so they show up first in listings.
There are multiple ways you could ago about proving it. You could look at the timing of reviews. (Do they suddenly get an influx and then it drops?) You could look at the IP address of reviews to find correlations. You could look at the content of reviews. (Do they share similar characteristics that don't match legit reviews?)
These, and other things, can be used to start the process. Then you enter into discovery and get their emails and account information. This is likely to get you absolute proof if there wasn't enough already.
Exactly. Making false advertisment claims for health products is banned.
I know of fake health products with 10k + filed complaints and the FTC has done zilch. It needs far more funding to be effective online.
Inflatated social media influence? Does that include the tens of thousands MAGA bots on X?
While we're at it, can be ban AI generated product reviews and comparisons? That would be rad.
First sentence, emphasis mine:
Just being cheeky though. I don't always read the articles either. But Lina Kahn has been on fire lately.
I read the article, but I more took it as line item reviews from the likes of Amazon, Yelp, Google, etc. It didn't seem like they were targeting product writeups and comparisons from unaffiliated third party websites.
Fake reviews sure, but what does comparisons have to do with it? Sounds like a perfect use for an LLM to compare two different product description pages.
Nah fuck that. If I'm seeking out detailed comparisons, I'd rather real world reports from an enthusiast or someone knowledgeable in the field. I'm not talking just comparing side-by-side specs, I can do that with two browser windows myself. The problem is that you'll find these reports, but they're absolute drivel written either by machine that has no idea what the hell it's talking about, or a sponsored content "article" written by some yoyo that's clearly being paid to promote one product over the other.