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TripAdvisor Fined In Italy For Fake Reviews
mpicpp writes with news that TripAdvisor, a travel website filled with user-generated reviews, has been hit with a €500,000 ($611,000) fine for "misleading customers" by failing to cull fake reviews from their list. "The regulator complained that people reading TripAdvisor Italy were unable to distinguish between genuine and fake reviews posted on the site. It said both were presented by TripAdvisor as 'authentic and genuine in nature.' Demanding payment of the fine within 30 days, the ICA also accused the travel company of failing to provide proper checks to weed out bogus postings."
Parent is incorrect! (and in need of a spell checker) Mod parent down! (Let's show them that the moderation system works better than anything Tripadvisor has)
Very nice post. I enjoyed every part of it. Everything was top notch clean, the personnel was courteous. I highly recommend this post to everybody.
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
Anyone can write a review.
The sooner all access to the internet is controlled through validated user identities that use meat space names and avatars the better
Apparently, yes. Of course, the word is that Italy's court system is a total crock overall, but I have no personal experience to confirm or deny that.
In the absence of that, making companies liable for "failing to weed out" fake reviews essentially means no more reviews, period. I think I'd rather be able to decide for myself based on the content of the reviews whether I believe them or not, as long as the site isn't actively encouraging fakes and will at least look over and possibly do some minimal investigation into complaints of "fake" reviews when reported.
The regulator complained that people reading TripAdvisor Italy were unable to distinguish between genuine and fake reviews posted on the site.
So how is TripAdvisor supposed to do it?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
and why do they have the ability to fine Internet companies for hosting user-created content?
I know the argument about how anonymity is needed on the internet. Not sure it's necessary on places like TripAdvisor. It sucks that freedom of speech isn't respected under dictatorships, but what can be gained from allowing the average North Korean sneaking on to the internet to anonymously review a shitty fleabag hotel in Paraguay?
In fact I'm lying right now. That's how bad it is out there.
The Italians are still pissed off about that earthquake thing.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
"In one recent case, a hotel in Blackpool, England, fined a guest who posted a bad review..." If that's not a valid argument for anonymity on such sites I don't know what is!
If so, did the ICA fully investigate and prove that the review the quote was taken from was actually fraudulent, and determine that it had affected any consumers negatively (or at least that it was very likely to do so)? Did they even prove _any_ of the posted reviews were fraudulent? Surely there are some, but it seems like it would be pretty difficult to conclusively disprove the validity of specific reviews. The existence of reviews for hotels that have closed proves nothing in and of itself. If I had stayed at a hotel some time ago and had an exceptionally good or a very bad experience I might still post about it long afterwards if I later discovered TripAdvisor.
Anyway, as the accuser, it seems the burden of proof really ought to be on the ICA. I'd still argue they're being idiots even if they did somehow prove the above, but at least they'd be idiots with some (albeit questionable) ground to stand on, instead of idiots just trying to extort foreign companies in the name of alleged "consumer protection." Because that's kind of what they look like so far from the limited info in TFA.
This is the first review site has faced financial penalties in Europe or the United States for failing to clamp down on potentially false reviews... There is no certainty of information in such sites...
The pizza was gummy, the wine tasted of vinegar, the bread was at least two days old and they even charged 5$ for a bottle of water that was brought on the table already open, maybe refilled of tap water. I definitely do not recommend, please steer clear of vikingpower pizza lest they ruin your trip more than the corrupt police officers who fined your car that was perfectly parked within the free parking lot.
Two restaurants I really liked in Berlin, I talked to the owners about TripAdvisor:
Neither was listed. I wanted to add them and tell others about how nice they were.
They asked that I didn't put them (back) on TripAdvisor. Apparently people use sites like that to blackmail restaurants into service.
That's why we can't have anything nice.
Either TripAdvisor owns up and starts cleaning up false reviews, or it will get completely useless.
Maybe the "star" rating system needs to go, and only allow reviews. Rate restaurants on how well-written the reviews are, and people can read for themselves. It should make it a lot more work to actually sink a restaurant.
Without some real world authentication of some sort, every review site is subject to fake reviews.
Entities have way more incentive to create (fake) reviews (positive for them, negative for competitors) than real customers do to create real ones. I believe its called economics.
Two restaurants I really liked in Berlin, I talked to the owners about TripAdvisor:
Neither was listed. I wanted to add them and tell others about how nice they were.
I had that experience with a restaurant in Panama City called La Esquina Van Gogh. It was an outstanding, impeccable fine dining establishment just a bit off the main drag which was languishing for lack of business. I tried to add it to TripAdvisor, and they declined to utilize my review. They just blew it off entirely, I presume after soliciting a bribe from the owner.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
corrupt police officers who fined your car that was perfectly parked within the free parking lot
Because someone put a potentially fake note on your windshield saying "nice car".
You're a plonker. They specifically posted reviews themselves, one calling a restaurant named Tomato and Basil "the best chinese restaurant in Milan" . These reviews were neither reviewed nor removed, therfor, there needs to be indication that there is no filtering of the the user posted content (except for bad word filters.. maybe).
He tried to kill me with a forklift!
Your better off finding honest reviews somewhere other then a travel site. Personally I look at the percentage of bad reviews to gain a honest opinion about something. If I see reviews with all positives, something is wrong, because not everyone will be 100% satisfied all the time. Also, honest reviews tend to be lengthy and specific whereas fake reviews are vague on generalized. I have found restaurant reviews the worst at fake reviews. Hotels, a close second. Of course, some people are more picky then others.
Other than siding with the Nazis in World War II Italy has done nothing of relevance in the last century.
Their "justice system" has sued Formula Once bosses for Ayrton Senna's death.
And now they are after Tripadvisor.
Fuck Italy.
Also Godwin's law.
M
...my experience with site reviewing restaurants is awful. I use them just as search engines to find a list of restaurants close to my location, then I ask to friends if they visited them. To my experience sites like Tripadvisor are just too much infested by fake reviews, either positive or negative. Among the reviews, last month I found on Tripadvisor a nice gem: a very positive comment about a restaurant very close to where I live. The restaurant was indeed excellent and reasonably cheap, but it was shut down more than two years ago, and the review was posted last month...draw your own conclusions.
Had an experience with Home Advisor refusing to post a negative review, even though I had the correspondence and pictures to prove my case. Even better, said contractor apparently forgot how much of a sleazeball he was, and contacted me to leave a review on his personal site, to which I did. That got deleted rather quickly.
Consequently I have doubts with most review. It's not just blackmailing businesses, but also failing to list negative reviews. And even for negative reviews, what is more important is how the business addresses them. You see it on Newegg often, where a company asks to be contacted directly to resolve an issue. That speaks more highly of a company than endless 5 star reviews.
Some politician's restaurant/hotel finally got the shitty reviews it deserves and we somehow got to compensate them for it.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
corrupt police officers who fined your car that was perfectly parked within the free parking lot
Because someone put a potentially fake note on your windshield saying "nice car".
If only Lonely Planet would advice people what Italian policemen mean when they ask you for a cup of coffee. I's all their fault, I think I'm going to sue them.
I wish the US had laws against false advertising.
TripAdvisor and platforms like it are almost ransomware. You, a customer, will make a review for an establishment and then they will e-mail that establishment with a notice "Hey you got a 5 star review, wouldn't it be great if someone could see it?" or better yet "Hey you got a 1 star review, (which is up right now for everyone to see) don't you want to respond to it or how about you buy our executive-platinum-double-gold package to manage your review section for only $300 a month?"
If so, did the ICA fully investigate and prove that the review the quote was taken from was actually fraudulent, and determine that it had affected any consumers negatively (or at least that it was very likely to do so)? Did they even prove _any_ of the posted reviews were fraudulent?
You can request the transcripts from the hearing from the ICA if you want yourself, I wouldn't know what proceedings they conducted, not being a party to the hearing, or Italian, my interest is minimal.
I was merely identifying the ICA for the above poster, and indicating where its authority derived.
No Yelp for Italy?
This is a real problem everywhere.
I have the same doubts about urbanspoon.com which I no longer trust.
Exacerbated by companies like reputation.com.
The internet is proving once again to be less than it was cracked up to be.
A pox on web designers who feel that window.innerWidth == screen.availWidth
"the bread was at least two days old "
It's an old italian proverb.
If you want bread from today, you'll have to come back tomorrow.
Fake reviews can be eliminated by forcing the reviewers to post a key code along with the review.
The key codes would have been given to the reviewers by the hotel.
The hotel would have gotten the keys from Trip Advisor.
Therefore, TripAdvisor can then check if each review is legit or not. Non legit reviews would not contain the appropriate keys, and the keys would be expirable after a month.
Here in Argentina TripAdvisor has a promo where they pay for reviews with frequent flyer miles (https://www.tripadvisor.com.ar/LANPASS). You can review tourist attractions but they pay more for hotels (previously it was a condition that 1 in 4 reviews had to be of a hotel). You can win up to 1500 miles per month, which can add up to a decent amount (in less than a year it'd be a free ticket).
As a Slashdot discussion grows longer, the probability of an analogy involving cars approaches one.
There was a perception (voiced to me by at least one Vineyard owner and one hotel owner) that their competitors were writing bad reviews in an effort to hurt each others businesses. Even in 2010/2011, the vineyard guy was hoping Tripadvisor would be outlawed.
We laughed and drank our wine, but this article doesn't surprise me in the least.
-- My Sig is a P228.
It also ties a review directly back to the customer in the hotel's database.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
It's North Korea making all the fake posts.
So many ways to break this... Someone mad that his morning coffee was cold could lie and say the room was dirty, the bed uncomfortable, the hotel noisy, and the food was bad. Or a restaurant could give out $10 discounts for any customer coming back with proof that they posted a 5 star review (yes I have actually seen a store offering this). All the key codes would do is assure that the review was written by someone who'd actually been there. It doesn't thwart fake reviews.
You made my Xmas!
TripAdvisor and platforms like it are almost ransomware.
Almost correct. Almost. Here, let me fix it for you:
TripAdvisor and platforms like it are ransomware.
TripADvisor is a nasty business. It exists only to make a shitload of money. It's run by people who make Steve Ballmer look saintly. I have spoken with restaurateurs who have benefited from bullshit reviews by sockpuppets, and restaurateurs who are depressed and downtrodden by diners who shake them down after a meal by threatening nasty reviews.
Surely there must be a way to build a proper open source platform that allows people to post genuine reviews without an evil corporation's dirty hands ruining things. How about a Gnashdot? You know, something like slashdot - but instead, "news for diners, stuff and platters".