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FTC's rule banning fake online reviews goes into effect

(abcnews.go.com)
613 points indus | 3 comments | 22 Oct 24 15:21 UTC | HN request time: 0.626s | source
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mmooss ◴[22 Oct 24 15:59 UTC] No.41915635[source]▶
> the rule bans reviews and testimonials attributed to people who don’t exist or are generated by artificial intelligence, people who don’t have experience with the business or product/services, or misrepresent their experience.

Does the rule apply to private citizens? I wonder if the First Amendment agrees with penalizing private citizens "who don’t have experience with the business or product/services, or misrepresent their experience". They may mean that businesses can't engage people to write such reviews.

Also, how will they handle the scale of enforcement? The large companies seem easy - one enforcement action covers all of Yelp, another all of Amazon, etc. But what about the infinite reviews at smaller vendoers?

Overall though, I think this is great and long past due. The lawlessness of the Internet - fraud, spying, etc. - is absurd.

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1. BobaFloutist ◴[22 Oct 24 19:25 UTC] No.41917762[source]▶
> Does the rule apply to private citizens? I wonder if the First Amendment agrees

> with penalizing private citizens "who don’t have experience with the business or

> product/services, or misrepresent their experience". They may mean that

> businesses can't engage people to write such reviews.

The First Amendment doesn't typically protect your right to commit fraud, no.

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2. mmooss ◴[22 Oct 24 23:38 UTC] No.41919887[source]▶
I used Downy Super-Gentle Laundry Soap and my clothes fell apart, like it was an acid! Hacker News is secretly controlled by Mark Zuckerberg and Laurene Powell Jobs! ...

Where is the FTC? dang might delete my comment or ban me, but the government has no right to do a thing.

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3. DeliriousDog ◴[23 Oct 24 12:16 UTC] No.41924207[source]▶
You aren't attempting to defraud anyone.

The intent is clearly to prevent entities from publishing clearly fake/ill-gotten reviews. The first amendment does not protect your speech when that speech is used to assist in committing another crime. The second amendment exists, but that does not give you carte blanche to shoot people (extreme example).

For a speech related example, see the Freeman v Giuliani case[^1], where the defense stated that they "have a first amendment right to lie," which was ruled to not be the case in defamation.

Also remember that there needs to be some measurable level of harm inflicted. A silly comment in this thread is unlikely to have any measurable level of harm, but cheating reviews may result in tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales.

[^1]: APNews https://apnews.com/article/giuliani-2020-election-georgia-de...)