Fake reviews

Because reviews play such a vital role in modern day society, it's important that they are authentic and trustworthy. Unfortunately, this is seldom the case.

Consumers are suspicious of the quality of reviews across all major review platforms. A 2021 study by AgilityPR shows that 67% of consumers are concerned about review fraud. A 2019 Sift consumer survey shows that 85% of consumers believed the reviews they read were "sometimes or often fake".

Google, the largest review platform, reported the largest percentage (10.7%) of fake reviews: in 2020 alone they had to remove 55 million fake reviews from their website. Also Yelp, Tripadvisor and Facebook reported worrying statistics.

These alarming findings are caused by both businesses and consumers. Businesses try to increase their revenue by leaving positive reviews for themselves and/or negative ones for their competitors, pretending to be real customers. This is known as astroturfing. They also often pay people for fake reviews. Consumers themselves are responsible for review bombing, a coordinated attack in which someone who had a bad experience asks their friends or social community to negatively review a venue; disregarding the fact that they may have never visited that venue, let alone had a bad experience there. Sometimes review platforms are also used to express political or religious claims that have nothing to do with the specific venue.

The economic impact of fake reviews is immense. The direct influence of fake online reviews on global online spending is around $152 billion, as recently estimated by the World Economic Forum. Statistics show that the fake review industry keeps growing. Agencies around the world are offering services to bump up the number of reviews or provide fixed packages for buying reviews. Even trading of fake online reviews between businesses has become increasingly common with online groups. In a blog post, Amazon requested social media companies to keep fake reviews under control by keeping a lookout for groups that are used to perpetuate fake reviews.

Review censorship is not a suitable solution. A study by Trustpilot indicates that 62% of consumers will not support businesses if they are known for censorship of their reviews.