Facebook will start cracking down on fake review sellers

Social Media Today reports that Facebook will start taking action in removing fake reviews and fake review sellers in response to a warning from the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

CMA warned Facebook and eBay that they need to take more action to prevent sale of fake reviews. Per CMA:

"The Competition and Markets Authority has found troubling evidence that there is a thriving marketplace for fake and misleading online reviews. After web sweeps performed in the period November 2018 to June 2019, the CMA was concerned about over 100 eBay listings offering fake reviews for sale. It also identified - during the same period - 26 Facebook groups in total where people offered to write fake reviews or businesses recruited people to write fake and misleading reviews on popular shopping and review sites."

CMA estimates that more than 75% of UK shoppers are swayed by reviews when shopping online, thus underscoring the influence of fake reviews in their purchase decisions as well.

Facebook responded to CMA, saying:

"Fraudulent activity is not allowed on Facebook or Instagram, including offering or trading fake reviews. While we have invested heavily to prevent this kind of activity across our services, we know there is more work to do and are working with the CMA to address this issue. Since we were first contacted by the CMA, we have identified and removed over 180 groups and 24 accounts for violating our rules and have taken robust steps to prevent this type of fraudulent activity from re-appearing on our platforms."

I like this move. As online shopping grows exponentially, so are fake reviews and stuff which need regulatory and legal action. I've personally seen fake reviews on Facebook which surprisingly aren't taken down yet. Let's see the next steps now that UK's CMA has spoken.

Beware too, that fake reviews on the Warrior Forum will automatically constitute a permanent, irrevocable ban.