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FTC's rule banning fake online reviews goes into effect

(abcnews.go.com)
376 points indus | 3 comments | 22 Oct 24 15:21 UTC | HN request time: 0.633s | source
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burningChrome ◴[22 Oct 24 16:04 UTC] No.41915692[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.

I guess they don't know about how people scam Amazon reviews by getting legit people to simply buy the product and leave a five star review and then get reimbursed for their purchase later by the company or the company the company hired to get these people to do this.

(From 2022) Inside the Underground Market for Fake Amazon Reviews

https://www.wired.com/story/fake-amazon-reviews-underground-...

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WesternWind ◴[22 Oct 24 16:21 UTC] No.41915893[source]▶
Actually that's covered by the rule.

Buying Positive or Negative Reviews: The final rule prohibits businesses from providing compensation or other incentives conditioned on the writing of consumer reviews expressing a particular sentiment, either positive or negative. It clarifies that the conditional nature of the offer of compensation or incentive may be expressly or implicitly conveyed.

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burningChrome ◴[22 Oct 24 18:34 UTC] No.41917264[source]▶
>> The final rule prohibits businesses from providing compensation or other incentives.

Amazon has had this rule in place for a long time and I still get cards in the boxes of the stuff I buy, "Give us a 5 star review and get 30% off your next purchase!"

Clearly Amazon doesn't know about this or isn't generally enforcing it. I'm wondering how the FTC is going to patrol this since Amazon has already had this rule in place for a while and it hasn't dissuaded sellers from changing their habits.

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1. bluGill ◴[22 Oct 24 19:25 UTC] No.41917766[source]▶
The FTC can force Amazon to do more about it. Just proving they are trying would be a big help.
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2. notinmykernel ◴[22 Oct 24 19:31 UTC] No.41917838[source]▶
Amazon is currently providing a LLM-generated summary of these faked customer reviews. To abide by the FTC ruling, Amazon would now have to prove that all of their training data is legitimate customer reviews. Do you think they will actually do that?
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3. bluGill ◴[22 Oct 24 19:51 UTC] No.41918018[source]▶
If the FTC wants to they can. The government as a lot more power than Amazon, the only question is will they use it.