Those who do fake reviews are not well, the government is bringing a new law.
Fake Reviews: The government is bringing a new law for users who put fake reviews on e-commerce websites like Amazon, Flipkart. The Central Government has made a new scheme to protect online shopping customers from fake or bogus reviews while purchasing a product. The government has drafted a new bill for ratings on Google, Facebook and Meta platforms, Amazon, travel websites and food delivery apps. After the passage of this bill, customers making online purchases or availing services will not see false or fake reviews and ratings on any platform.
Many brands get fake reviews and ratings done
Brands employ promoted reviews and ratings to drive sales and attract customers. Because of this, common customers who take online service or buy products get trapped. Fake and bogus ratings and reviews affect online shopping and availing services by customers. Many customers and industry professionals have criticized fake and bogus ratings and reviews for e-commerce websites and services.
Committee formed in June
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Department of Consumer Affairs, had constituted a committee in June this year to prepare a framework to identify fake and misleading reviews on e-commerce platforms.
Community platform LocalCircles has submitted an initial draft of the bill to the Consumer Affairs Department. This draft will be presented to this committee constituted by the Central Government so that guidelines for review and rating system can be issued to e-commerce platforms on its basis. This rule of online review can prove to be effective in conveying correct and transparent information between customers and brands.
Fake users will be identified
In the new guidelines, platforms like Facebook and Google will be asked to identify users doing fake ratings. These tech companies will be able to identify fake users by adopting 6 to 8 methods. These companies will determine whether the user has created an account solely for the purpose of rating and reviewing, or has done so genuinely. If an account has been created solely for fake reviews, these platforms may block reviews from that account or user.
However, no provision for any kind of punishment has been made in the draft guidelines. First it will be tested and it will be seen whether the tech companies are following this rule or not? However, at present no timeline has been received from the ministry as to when this bill will be implemented. When this rule will be implemented legally, then changes can be seen in this draft.
