Fake reviews can cause huge financial losses to businesses.
According to studies, fake reviews cause $152 billion in direct damage annually. There are reports where companies bear a loss of millions of dollars due to fraudulent online reviews. This not only impacts businesses financially but also takes up employees’ headspace and time.
It has been urged by the ombudsman, Bruce Billson, that the damage caused by the fake reviews on social media to small businesses should be investigated. These reviews are normally in the review section of any website, comment section, and website. Fake reviews often result in losing sales for the company. People demand digital websites to build such platforms where they can have more transparent reviews.
According to Billson, this also causes mental stress for the company employees and executives. So, there should be a proper system for resolving this issue for companies.
According to some reports, there are more than 30 businesses that are currently dealing with fake reviews in recent years.
In 2020, Melbourne dentist DR. Mathew took legal action against the negative reviewer, and Google and Optus had to reveal the identity of the reviewer. The case got settled later.
In 2019 Australian government recommended building an external resolution system for technology-related companies which was approved. There has been still no pilot program for this system.
Last year, a lady was fined $170,000 plus expenses for adding a fake review about Dr.Allison Dean. The judge called it “vendetta” against Dr. Allison Dean.
Last year Australians launched social media inquiry to analyze what damages fake reviews cause to businesses which include harmful content or behavior. They inquired about age verification, algorithms, identity verification, online child safety, data collection, and age guidelines.
There are cases where people were banned from Facebook and social media pages for inappropriate activities on social media. One such example is of Craig Kelly who was blocked by the Facebook and Instagram for promoting hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin.
