In January 2020, the Competition and Markets Authority
secured an agreement from Facebook to “better identify, investigate and remove
groups and other pages where fake and misleading reviews were being traded, and
prevent them from reappearing”.
The practice, in which unscrupulous traders buy fake
positive reviews on e-commerce sites to boost sales – or hit competitors with
fraudulent negative reviews – was frequently co-ordinated on Facebook and
Instagram, the CMA found.
But while Facebook agreed to act, a follow-up investigation
“found evidence that the illegal trade in fake reviews was still taking place”,
the CMA said, and it was forced to intervene for a second time.
“Facebook has a duty to do all it can to stop the trading of
such content on its platforms,” said Andrea Coscelli, the chief executive of
the CMA. “After we intervened again, the company made significant changes – but
it is disappointing it has taken them over a year to fix these issues.
“We will continue to keep a close eye on Facebook, including
its Instagram business. Should we find it is failing to honour its commitments,
we will not hesitate to take further action.”
Facebook said it would suspend or ban users who “repeatedly”
create groups dedicated to fake reviews, and introduce new technology to flag
such groups automatically and make it harder for people to find and join the
groups in the first place.
A Facebook spokesperson said: “We have engaged extensively
with the CMA to address this issue. Fraudulent and deceptive activity is not
allowed on our platforms, including offering or trading fake reviews. Our
safety and security teams are continually working to help prevent these
practices.”
The scourge of fake reviews has spread across much of the
internet. In October 2018, an investigation by Which? found that Facebook
“factories” were producing the reviews, which were then almost entirely posted
on Amazon. The e-commerce site would prioritise reviews from “genuine” buyers,
who were then reimbursed for their trouble by the scammers on Facebook. The
expensive “genuine” reviews were then backed up by tens of thousands of
unverified positive reviews.
Another investigation looked at products on Amazon and found
that 71% of headphones had perfect five-star ratings – but that the text of the
reviews often referred to unrelated products such as soap dispensers. One set
of headphones made by the brand Celebrat had 439 reviews. All were five-star, all
unverified, and all arrived on the same day.
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