this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2024
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Takes effect in October, finally some good news

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[–] Boozilla@lemmy.world 123 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Lina Khan is a champion of the people. She's one of a zillion reasons voting matters.

[–] negativenull@lemmy.world 49 points 3 weeks ago

She's an absolute rock star

[–] N0body@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 weeks ago

Walz/Khan 2032

[–] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 102 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

I’m very interested how this will affect Amazon, and how they will be able to enforce it

[–] mipadaitu@lemmy.world 73 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Maybe they shouldn't have 6,000 versions of the same thing under different fake brands sold by fake companies.

Clean that up and the rest becomes a hell of a lot easier.

[–] tyrant@lemmy.world 41 points 3 weeks ago

Not to mention the sellers that swap the product but keep the reviews

[–] Brokkr@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago

I think a lot of that stuff is people buying items in bulk off alibaba, rebranding it, and listing. Most of it is crap, but that's how stuff like it can be so cheaply produced, it's one or two factories producing at scale.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

All the DCRYTJT HDMI cables for a start. Got a couple of bad reviews? Just run your hand over the keyboard at random, there's your new brand name. They're now XDCRHJT HDMI cables.

Generic products should just be listed together.

[–] mipadaitu@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

You'd probably enjoy this Ryan George sketch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQpxAvjD_30

[–] comador@lemmy.world 25 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

AMZ: Who, us? All our reviews are REAL!

Target and Walmart: Yeah, what they said!

[–] Wogi@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago

Lowe's is horrible about this too. Most of the big box stores are but Lowe's seems to be the most egregious about it

[–] bustAsh@lemmy.world 17 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I updated my Firefox browser. Now, when viewing a product on Amazon, Firefox rates the reviews A-F based on whether or not they are reliable.

[–] PlexSheep@infosec.pub 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Is that part of the browser itself or some extension?

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[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 11 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

Fuck Amazon. Never buy their basics bullshit, they steal shit and rebrand it. It's as unethical as purchasing shit gets.

Edit: Here's a video! https://youtu.be/HbxWGjQ2szQ

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[–] EndOfLine@lemm.ee 62 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

The ban also forbids marketers from exaggerating their own influence by, for example, paying for bots to inflate their follower count.

I wonder if "followers" includes users and how that will impact Twitter, Reddit, Facebooky, Instagram, TikTok, etc who use stats like active users to drive ad sales.

[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 21 points 3 weeks ago

But I thought Elon got rid of all the bots... does that mean my sweetheart's link isn't actually in their bio?

I am devastated.

[–] Good_morning@lemmynsfw.com 16 points 3 weeks ago

I'm curious about that too, I assumed the main target was online storefronts but it seems more expansive than that. Was surprised to learn about Amazon suing admins of FB groups.

[–] Crismus@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

Let's hope this means the constant calls I get on What's App to work as a fake promoter bumping review scores will stop.

I was starting to be tempted because I hate poverty.

[–] JimSamtanko@lemm.ee 30 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

There’s no way they will be able to enforce this.

[–] FlowVoid@lemmy.world 18 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (5 children)

Here's one way to enforce it: the FTC could set up fronts that sell fake reviews. If anyone tries to buy fake reviews, the FTC busts them.

After doing this enough, companies will be suspicious of anyone selling fake reviews. Maybe suspicious enough to not risk buying them. Kind of like how it's common knowledge that every supposed killer-for-hire is actually an FBI agent waiting to arrest you.

Eventually, nobody want to buy fake reviews. And when nobody wants to pay for them, they will disappear.

[–] JimSamtanko@lemm.ee 5 points 3 weeks ago

That….. could work.

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[–] mke@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Perhaps the value is in having something explicitly written in a book, so that we can actually throw it at them.

They won't catch all cases, but maybe the fear of slipping and becoming the unlucky company that gets caught and punished will have a positive effect on the industry.

I don't have a backgrounder in law, this is simply optimistic speculation in response to pessimistic speculation.

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[–] julysfire@lemmy.world 25 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The enforcement of this is going to be pretty tough. And the fake reviews by bots will get argued to high hell and back in court. "They aren't bots, they are real people in click farms".

Love the direction but I am not holding my breath until we see some actionable change from this.

[–] DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

That's not how this works. The rule can't stop you as a private person. You can still post bot reviews.

It will apply to businesses, which don't have the right to remain silent or against searches. If they suspect a business is breaking the rules, they can subpoena the employees, computers and bank records to check if they are breaking the rule. And if they think the employees would risk jail time for perjury or destruction of evidence to protect their employer, they can just raid the offices and seize the computers.

[–] Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de 25 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Amazon has some major cleaning up to do

[–] FlowVoid@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago

The new rule bans writing, buying or selling fake reviews.

It does not require Amazon or Apple to identify or delete fake reviews.

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 23 points 3 weeks ago

I won't believe this is serious until somebody kicks down a door

[–] bradorsomething@ttrpg.network 20 points 3 weeks ago

I purchased an FTC and was very pleased with my product. It can be loud at times and make bold claims, but in the end does nothing.

[–] TacticsConsort@yiffit.net 19 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Now there's an interesting one. If this is actually enforced properly then it could really have a big impact on some sites that are notorious for bot spamming to make themselves look impressive.

[–] Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Very true but man this is gonna be tough to actually enforce. Not only just bots but how the heck are paid reviews gonna be found and banned? Those are legit reviews by actual people, just saying bull crap because they were paid or received a free product or something

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[–] AtomicTacoSauce@lemmy.world 19 points 3 weeks ago (16 children)

How can this possibly be enforced?

[–] solarvector@lemmy.zip 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Not sure why you're being down voted. It's a legit question even if you support the law. Enforcement seems very difficult and other laws and courts make even easier enforcement difficult.

I still think it's a very positive direction from the FTC.

[–] AtomicTacoSauce@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago

Not sure why you're being down voted

I guess Reddit habits never die, eh?

But, I’d love to see this come to fruition. I just don’t see how enforcement could keep up with the sheer numbers of fake reviews.

[–] FlowVoid@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

The rule targets people who write or sell fake reviews. So the FTC could pretend to be a manufacturer soliciting fake reviews, and then go after anyone who offers to sell them.

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[–] 4am@lemm.ee 5 points 3 weeks ago

Might just give way to an arms race for realistic fake reviews, but at least this gives teeth to investigators. If they can prove that a company did it, then they have a rule to cite that it’s an offense, instead of the fuck-all we have now.

[–] Pacattack57@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The same way as other laws. A small fine that gets rolled into the cost of doing business.

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[–] SomeGuy69@lemmy.world 17 points 3 weeks ago

This will be fun to Amazon, either 95% of all reviews will suddenly disappear or they're no longer legal.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 14 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

So, they’re gonna start policing Apple’s App Store for the many obviously fake reviews and make Apple do something about it, right? Please be yes.

[–] JimSamtanko@lemm.ee 6 points 3 weeks ago

So long as they do the same for androids store and everyone else- I agree.

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[–] thesohoriots@lemmy.world 14 points 3 weeks ago

Hopefully they address those companies that force frontload all the 5-star, then 4-star, etc. with no way to sort except by going through hundreds of pages.

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Next ban fake followers lmao

[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 weeks ago

They mention followers in the article!

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

Read the article

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