Social media reviews trustworthy?

Opinions and reviews from social media are abundantly used by individuals and organisations for making purchase decisions. When such reviews are fake or untruthful, it is referred to as opinion spamming. This is also known as Astroturfing, a term which was first coined by U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas in 1985.

Astroturfing is the practice of preparing or disseminating a false or deceptive review that a reasonable consumer would believe to be a neutral, third-party testimonial. For most businesses, enlisting employees and relatives and tasking them with providing a less-than-truthful review is the main avenue to Astroturf their online reputation. It may also be carried out with the objective of maligning or disparaging the goodwill and/or reputation of a competitor in business. This is known as negative astroturfing. Such false opinions or reviews do have an impact on the mind-set of potential consumers. It is done for various reasons such as promotion of business, in order to injure the reputation of competitors, drown out a legitimate negative review.

There are several known techniques of Astroturfing. One of them is front groups, which are organizations that mask a corporate sponsor and appear to serve public interest. They create fake blogs which appear to be written by consumers with a view to influencing reader's opinions and annul negative feedback or reviews, if any. Another technique is where multiple identities are created by a single person. A software called 'Persona Management Software' is used to create a credible online persona which is also called a 'sockpuppet' including a fake name, email id, social media profile and other data. And the person may post positive reviews about a product or negative reviews about rival products using these fake identities. They may criticise rival organisations and attack other consumers by starting arguments based on the reviews adversely affect and disparage a business.

There are organized businesses that assist companies to engage in astroturfing. These businesses pay their employees based on the number of comments posted on the websites without being flagged by site moderators. Various persona management software programs are also available that assist in creating numerous online personas which can be used to post convincing looking comments.

Legal scenario in U.S, EU and India
U.S

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) authorises the Commissioners to impart hefty fines or even shut down a business as a result of engaging in fake testimonials or paying people to post misleading reviews. The FTC has also provided Endorsement Guidelines, according to which the 'material connections' such as payments or free products, between advertisers and endorses must be disclosed. The revised Guidelines specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement and thus they must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. In addition, the Endorsement Guides let endorsers know that they shouldn't talk about their experience with a product if they haven't tried it, or make claims about a product that would require proof they don't have. 1

European Union

The EU Directive 2005/29/EC bans fake online consumer reviews. It defines misleading or aggressive commercial practices that are prohibited in the EU. According to Article 6, two conditions must be met for a commercial practice to be misleading. First, it must either contain false information or therefore be untruthful, or it must deceive or be likely to deceive the average consumer in some way (including overall presentation), even if the information is factually correct. Second, the misleading practice must cause, or be likely to cause, the average consumer to take a transactional decision that he or she would not have taken otherwise. 2

India

In India, on the surface, this practice is simply unethical but not necessarily damaging for those reading the review, and thus not illegal. But if it amounts to negative astroturfing such as posting of online adverse, prejudicial, malicious, slanderous, disparaging material, comments or reviews, it would constitute a criminal offence of defamation and is punishable under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 with fine or imprisonment or both. The provisions of Section 469 and 503 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 may also be applicable depending on the facts and circumstances of the case. Cases of negative Astroturfing may also constitute an act of “unfair trade practice” which has been defined under Section 2(r) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. An unfair trade practice includes false representation that particular goods or services are of a specific standard or quality. A person affected by negative astroturfing can approach the appropriate Consumer Disputes Redressal Agencies for the discontinuation of such an act as well as redressal. Astroturfing can also be brought under the purview of Section 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000 under which a person is punishable with fine and imprisonment for cheating by personation by using computer resource. In case it is a company that is indulging in astroturfing, then Section 85 of the IT Act can be applied.

To conclude, astroturfing itself is not recognized as a crime in India. But when it leads to other crimes such as defamation, forgery, misrepresentation etc, it becomes punishable under different provisions of various acts. Awareness about such an issue must be created among the consumers so that they know that not all reviews that they read are true and thus they can make the right purchase decision. Latest technologies must be used to create software that can detect such fake reviews. Also astroturfing in itself must be considered as a crime so that businesses and individuals will think twice before indulging in such activities.

1. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/media-resources/truth-advertising/advertisement-endorsements
2.http://www.eesc.europa.eu/resources/docs/online-consumer-reviews---the-case-of-misleading-or-fakereviews.pdf

Ms. Syama K.
Christ University, Banglore
Internship Research
Agnihotri & Jha Associates®