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FTC's rule banning fake online reviews goes into effect

(abcnews.go.com)
613 points indus | 2 comments | 22 Oct 24 15:21 UTC | HN request time: 0.432s | source
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bragr ◴[22 Oct 24 15:27 UTC] No.41915238[source]▶
Does the regulation say anything about deceptively moderating reviews? e.g. deleting all the low star reviews?

edit: it doesn't seem so. You just have use some weasel language:

>The final rule also bars a business from misrepresenting that the reviews on a review portion of its website represent all or most of the reviews submitted when reviews have been suppressed based upon their ratings or negative sentiment.

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/08/...

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1. peteey ◴[22 Oct 24 15:33 UTC] No.41915320[source]▶
yes, "This final rule, among other things, prohibits [...] certain review suppression practices[...]"

https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/federal-register-no...

Further down the notice cites the scenario: "[...] more than 4,500 merchants that were automatically publishing only 4- or 5-star consumer reviews"

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2. kentlyons ◴[23 Oct 24 15:39 UTC] No.41926153[source]▶
The actual rule for this part is farther down. Section 465.7b (p161 of the pdf). My reading is basically if the website is showing something that it looks like all of the reviews, then those can't be filtered in this way. But that seems to leave open cherry picking reviews - eg don't imply you're showing them all.

  ... receiving and displaying consumer reviews
  represent most or all the reviews submitted to the website or platform when reviews are being
  suppressed (i.e., not displayable) based upon their ratings or their negative sentiment...