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{"id":36289,"date":"2023-06-30T21:37:08","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T21:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2023\/06\/30\/ftc-finally-proposes-ban-on-fake-reviews\/"},"modified":"2023-06-30T21:37:09","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T21:37:09","slug":"ftc-finally-proposes-ban-on-fake-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2023\/06\/30\/ftc-finally-proposes-ban-on-fake-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"FTC finally proposes ban on fake reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/06\/30\/ftc-finally-proposes-ban-on-fake-reviews\/<\/a><\/br>
\nFTC finally proposes ban on fake reviews<\/br>
\n2023-06-30 21:37:08<\/br><\/p>\n

\n

The FTC has proposed a new rule<\/a> banning numerous forms of fake reviews online, from outright fabricated ones to those that are sketchily repurposed or secretly manipulated. It may not totally rehabilitate the notoriously unreliable online review ecosystem, but it could help make things a bit more bearable.<\/p>\n

This rule has been a long time in the making, which is par for the course at any federal regulator. The FTC\u2019s first case of this type was in 2019<\/a>, against a merchant that was making misleading claims and paying for fake reviews. Before that, it had taken on \u201cinfluencer marketing\u201d<\/a> where a person didn\u2019t disclose that they were being paid to promote a product.<\/p>\n

Now the agency is ready to take comprehensive action with rules they first previewed<\/a> last October and have now put in near-final form. The proposed rule is the result of much research and of consultation with businesses, consumers and even advertising trade organizations that predictably advised the FTC not to bother cracking down on this lucrative business.<\/p>\n

The Association of National Advertisers, for instance, says the agency \u201chas not demonstrated evidence of prevalence\u201d and worried that new rules would be \u201cburdensome.\u201d But consumer advocacy organizations, major online companies and common sense argue otherwise \u2014 public numbers of fake reviews taken down add up to billions by now, and anyone who has tried to buy a product on Amazon knows it\u2019s completely compromised. The regulators also note \u201cthe widespread emergence of generative AI, which is likely to make it easier for bad actors to write fake reviews.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, the FTC has no doubt carefully tailored the rules it is proposing so that legitimate commerce and acceptable review solicitation (like providing a product for an honest review) are not affected.<\/p>\n

You can read the full notice of proposed rulemaking here<\/a>, but as NPRMs tend to be, it\u2019s quite long and mostly about establishing the need and legality of the rule. The agency summarizes what is newly prohibited in a news release, though, which I have further condensed below:<\/p>\n