The problem with user generated content web sites -a.k.a. social media – is that much of the content is fake, incorrect or even fraudulent. TripAdvisor has a history of censoring bad reviews while letting businesses write fake bad reviews of their competitors.
TripAdvisor admitted to censoring some specific negative reviews by consumers reporting that crimes and acts of violence had occurred at some venues. Since then, more people have documented that TripAdvisor has censored reports of crime at U.S. hotel and related properties. Update: TripAdvisor caught lying, now said to be under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission. Unfortunately, online review sites are worthless due to a combination of “gaming the system” with fake reviews (both positive for your business and negative…
Update: TripAdvisor claimed to have apologized about deleting negative reviews but it turns out they lied about their apology: They had not apologized to the victim. One Senator is requesting the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to investigate TripAdvisor over their use of false reviews. TripAdvisor’s stock price fell this week from about $40/share to $31/share and one analyst is forecasting a $28/share price. In August, several analysts had forecast $44-$47 share prices for TRIP. As noted previously, online reviews…
With some businesses suing online review authors, even for completely factual reviews, should we even write online reviews? Further, many online reviews are “fake”, using paid authors and even competitors writing negative reviews on their competition.
Facebook bans those who appear to engage in hate speech or promoting acts of violence, and says it will ban those who may, in turn, make supportive comments about those who have been banned.
Social media companies want to act like an edited publication that is liable for its content while simultaneously saying they are like the telephone company which is not liable for the content carried over their network. Social media companies promote net neutrality to require third party Internet networks to carry their content unimpeded – while social media company’s simultaneously disable other people’s contents. This is a challenging problem.