FTC's rule banning fake online reviews goes into effect
FTC's rule banning fake online reviews goes into effect
A federal rule banning fake online reviews is now in effect
A federal rule banning fake online reviews is now in effect.
The Federal Trade Commission issued the rulein August banning the sale or purchase of online reviews. The rule, which went into effect Monday, allows the agency to seek civil penalties against those who knowingly violate it.
“Fake reviews not only waste people’s time and money, but also pollute the marketplace and divert business away from honest competitors,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said about the rule in August. She added that the rule will “protect Americans from getting cheated, put businesses that unlawfully game the system on notice, and promote markets that are fair, honest, and competitive.”
allows the agency to seek civil penalties against those who knowingly violate it.
I hate that wording. Ignorance of the law isn't a defense, unless you're a corporation, apparently.
It also looks like this doesn't address the practice of offering incentive for actual purchasers to leave positive reviews.
That's not what knowingly means in this context. Knowingly refers to the level of intent required to pursue charges, not whether they knew there was a law against it.
In this case it requires the government to show that the person intended to leave a review and/or testimonials that misrepresent that they are by someone who does not exist.
Anyways my brother works for the FTC. With the current funding, they take thousands of complaints before they even look into something. It’s effectively useless as only the most publicised cases get any enforcement and the fines are tiny. And he says it was twice as bad before Biden.
The wording is a bit ambiguous but I'd read that as "intentionally" rather than "with knowledge they're violating the law"... it definitely could have used a good copy editor though.
They'll just outsource it to foreign "reputation management" firms and pretend they had no idea what was happening, like how Coke got away with murdering union members in a foreign country.
Holy shit, killercoke.org goes fucking hard
That's not true, ignorance of the law is also a valid defense for police officers violating people's rights 🙄
It's more than a defense, it's actually a benefit for police. Attempting to enforce rules that don't exist still count as valid pretext if they find evidence of actual crimes.
It’s also pretty much impossible to prove, which of course is the point. The government exists to protect corporations
Awesome, now make them criminally liable.
Corporations are people, no? Throw them in prison.
IMO, corporate punishments should work like that: steal a little from someone? Lose 90 days of profit. Steal a lot? Lose a couple years of profits. Kill someone? Lose 20 years of profits
Jailing CEOs works better only because money is easy to manipulate. Loosing 20 years of profit just means bankruptcy. Make a new name new company buys all assets of bankrupt at fault company and nothing but the name changes. I'm with the idea that if companies have personhood than the person in charge is responsible for harm that personhood does.
They tried that when McDonald's served coffee that gave an old woman 3rd degree burns on her genitals.
A single days profits from coffee.
McDonald's fought that in court, and spent many thousands of dollars on a PR campaign to vilify the woman they burned.
Jail or volcano sacrifice. I'm sick of rich fucks being above the law and fines are just an expected, calculated, and bet against expense to a big business.
"I will believe that corporations are people, once Texas executes one."
It's executed plenty.
12 were executed in 2022
Zoom in: Texas had 23 clinics in operation before the decision — 12 shut down and 11 are open but only offer services other than abortion.
Lina Khan is literally too good for consumers, that's why she don't last :(
Who was that punchable face guy who undid net neutrality? And she is completely opposite.
You mean this guy? Ajit Pai. Fuck him and his ridiculous mug
Literally the opposite lol. He got rid of net neutrality with the help of spamming with a bunch of fake bots for support. Nobody actually supported it, except the monopolies of course.
This is pretty close to banning that exact action. That should've instantly kicked him out of office for that, but it showed pretty clearly that we weren't in a democracy...
She is doing more for the working class than any other government official. And yet no one knows her name
Common Lina Khan W
Give me 10 Lina Khans and I'll give you the world.
I wish she was the one running for president. Maybe in eight years if we're lucky and have Harris. And/or legal elections in four.
Lina Khan is the most useful bureaucrat in at least a generation.
I've said it once and I'll say it again. I love the work Lina Khan is doing. Its going to be so sad when Kamala gives her the boot :(
Some guy in India is gonna get fined $7,498,342.37 in three years and I'm all for it.
And then he won't pay it because he's in India and doesn't pay a lot of attention to the US FTC.
There is a very long history of expeditions and fines against foreign nationals involving spam, scams, etc. Here is a recent example., and another example, and a much older and bigger example
But you never hear about any of the good stuff the US Government does for its people, nobody ever talks about that stuff.
The Federal Trade Commission today announced a final rule that will combat fake reviews and testimonials by prohibiting their sale or purchase and allow the agency to seek civil penalties against knowing violators.
Oh good, glad they didn't ban obvious joke ones people post for free, like the top reviews for the 50 gallon barrel of lube.
Better than nothing but it also seems like it might be kind of difficult to prove the company allowed it knowingly.
It prevented reviews and testimonials that misrepresent that they are by someone who does not exist. Fairly easy to prove. If they catch an individual posting a review while posing as anyone but themselves, It's a done deal.
In this context “knowingly” means “intentionally”, not that they knew there was a law against it.
An entity is in violation if they knowingly commit the act, not that they knowingly broke the law.
Yes, I understand (ignorance of a law is no defense at least in the US) that but it still may prove difficult to actually prove.
Well if you take a company like Amazon they know everything about you already, including if you actually purchased the item you are reviewing. And that should be a simple first "hurdle" for a reviewer to be legit. They already have a way of sorting them out and labeling them in place. So I would assume this means if you don't have that label your review doesn't go live. They can then add more qualifiers to prove they know the reviewers are real, since this seems to put the onus of proof on the company not that FTC.
Edit - some words
I just got a can of diet Coke in exchange for a 5-star review of a local eatery. I legit like the eatery, but would not have left a review without the bribe.
Is that a legit review or a fake one?
IMHO, if they'd give you the Coke for any review, regardless of rating, that's fine. If they demand a 5-star rating for the Coke, then that's no good.
Your review might have been honest, but not everybody else's who just wanted the Coke will be.
You received an item for the review. That’s a bribe. Fake.
I'd say that's legit given you actually like the eatery. Would you have written the review if they had just nicely asked you to, without a payment of Diet Coke?
I would have started to, but when I had trouble finding the "reviews" link on Google I'd probably have given up.
that is fake
What is going to happen? Will the FTC police gonna come and cart them away? No, it will continue and nothing will happen. FTC enforcement is just a few law suits away from being just like the SEC's enforcement. The SEC can't enforce anything these days without a long drawn out court battle.
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I think one thing dems could easily do is go after media companies for colluding. For instance trump's truth.social and musk's xitter should be competing, not teaming up
I'm sure this will work.
It's a start, we could still have nothing. FTC is doing the Lord's work right now.
You're right, we should just leave it as being legal 🙄 that's so much better