Yelp has made a business model out of allowing people to post online reviews of businesses. But many of those reviews could be fake. In fact, it’s real easy to create a fake profile or post a fake review of a business anonymously, and Yelp doesn’t seem to be interested in changing that.
A recent case in Virginia resulted in the court ordering Yelp to turn over the names of seven anonymous reviewers.
This is interesting in a number of ways. Yelp could appeal. If they win, they’ll likely still lose – in the court of public opinion. Most business owners get the jitters at the thought of fake anonymous reviews, as they should. The balancing act is protecting the right of business owners to manage their reputations free from anonymous defamation and the right of consumers to post legitimate reviews of businesses they like and don’t like. The challenge for Yelp is to figure out how to allow legitimate reviews while discouraging fake reviews that don’t help customers or businesses.
Fake reviews are destructive of trust. If consumers can’t trust the review, then they can’t trust the place where the review is published.
What’s your take on fake reviews? Should they be illegal, or should Yelp discourage them in some way? If so, how? What is your suggestion for handling fake reviews of businesses online?
Fake reviews should not be illegal. That would require a Federal law to make fake reviews against the law. Passing such a law is permitting the Gov’t to regulate the Internet.
You made a good point about Yelp (for example) having a vested interest in not having fake reviews. Once a review site acquires a reputation of having too many fake reviews, then their credibility is lost and their business will suffer.
Perhaps a reviewer on such I site could have a profile. This profile could list an accuracy percentage, or a rank of how helpful their reviews are. Sorta like eBay has a trusted-seller ranking. With such a profile, other viewers could see if this reviewer just bashes other places, or tends to exaggerate, or has only written one review etc. The reviewers profile would be their credibility.
An online review is similar to word-of-mouth. A business really can’t stop one person from telling all their friends how bad a place is. Obviously we wouldn’t want to make it “illegal” for someone to say they received bad service from some place they’ve never been–even though we wish they wouldn’t. In the end, it comes down to people considering the source of a piece of info and not being so gullible to believe everything they read.
Good post! Good Question!
Cheers
Rob