The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US has unanimously voted to crack down on fake online reviews and inflated social media influence.
From October, marketers and brands engaging in practices such as paying for bots to inflate follower counts or using AI to generate fake reviews will face significant legal consequences.
Activities prohibited include:
- Writing, selling, or buying fake or false consumer reviews, consumer testimonials, and celebrity testimonials. Such as AI-generated fake reviews and reviews from people who have no experience with or misrepresent products.
- Failing to make clear and conspicuous disclosures about insider reviews and testimonials.
- Deceptive use of company-controlled websites.
- Illegally suppressing negative reviews.
- Selling and buying fake social media indicators.
The new rule is clearly designed to protect consumers from being misled by deceptive marketing practices, Fabulate chief product and strategy officer Nathan Powell told AdNews.
"When followers, likes, or reviews are fabricated, it creates a false sense of popularity or credibility and can lead consumers to make purchases or investments based on inauthentic information," Powell said.
Research suggests on a platform like Instagram, for example, one in 10 might be fake but it's important to note that not all creators are doing this.
"Serious professional creators are unlikely to “juice” their followers or engagement but our clients have seens some instances, usually they might be midtier creators, who sometimes look to take shortcuts to boost their following or engagement," Powell said.
In Australia, the ACCC has been active on issues like creators disclosing paid ads.
And Powell wouldn't be surprised if the competition regulator looked more closely at fake followers and engagement.
"It's important for marketers and agencies to be using tools to look at and verify the authenticity of the creator audiences they are buying - in the case of our clients they use our Fabulate Discovery product to protect themselves from bad actors," Powell said.
"We are seeing lots of the smart brands asking good questions not just about follower counts but also engagement and likes in their campaigns.
“Brands need to be vigilant about the comments on a creator’s post and in particular low quality comments. Bots often leave vague comments like "Great post!" or a string of unrelated emojis— these are usually clear signs of inauthentic engagement.”
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