Expert online defamation lawyers commenting on the group defamation action being led by KwikChex against TripAdvisor  know that in the USA in particular,  it is difficult to get a result against ‘review’ and ‘feedback’ sites. But in this case,  KwikChex is claiming that there have been abuses that fall outside of the normal defence of ‘user generated comment.’

In an article published by Beth Kormanik of Hotel Interactive.com, the following was stated:

Bill Hart, an attorney with the Manhattan firm Proskauer who specializes in technology issues, said situations similar to the “Hotel Horror” email could be in a “gray area” of the law. In general, sites cannot go beyond publishing user statements without giving up their immunity, he said. If they make conclusions from the reviews, it could be problematic.

and here is another from Jack Lerner, a professor at the University of Southern California Law School

‘The law would not protect sites that edit the substance of a user’s comment or that induce the content.‘

The KwikChex response to the article is “We already have what is the first truly robust defence system against this severe problem that affects both reputable businesses and consumers – but will be going far further – it is our belief that the mistakes that TripAdvisor have made undermine their integrity to such a degree that we can use them to leverage serious change. The fundamental issue is that we have proven you cannot trust TripAdvisor themselves to not produce damaging assertions  unjustifiably against reputable businesses – so how can you trust anything else on their site at present? Or to put it another way – when the saint is caught sinning, all faith is lost.”

Link to the ‘Promote & Protect’ KwikChex All Rounders service for hotels and restaurants

Link to the article on Hotel Interactive.com

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KwikChex statement:

Following a rapidly increasing number of enquiries from the hospitality industry about posts on TripAdvisor,  which we investigated in detail, we have clearly established that there are a number of elements within the TripAdvisor business model that are seriously flawed and which should be corrected in order to avoid damaging the reputation of reputable businesses with false allegations and to prevent misrepresentation to consumers

Approaches to Trip Advisor by owners suffering allegations and misrepresentation and by KwikChex have been met with intransigence on the part of TripAdvisor.

We are particularly concerned about the extent to which TripAdvisor proactively influences consumers – which falls way outside any defence of ‘User Generated Content’. The number of extremely serious allegations from posters unverified as even being customers is also worrying. These are not reviews on service, quality of food or ambiance – they are unsafe and often unfounded accusations of criminality and personal injury  for which there appears no evidence whatsoever. Whilst we have some concerns about other online ‘feedback resources’, we have never seen anything such as this in terms of volume, severity and the influence being wielded by the publisher. It is particularly serious for many of the smaller, independent businesses being affected. Other aspects of the operation also appear to actively discriminate against particular businesses – and this is exacerbated by the prolific use of ‘trusted source’ phraseology.

The action is included within our specific service for hotels and restaurants, which focuses on promoting and protecting reputable businesses. We started with 120 business owners, but the number affected even at the most severe level is tens f thousands, so we believe that the final figure we will be assisting is going to be very substantial indeed. We do hope that TripAdvisor, like other businesses we are dealing with that publish online feedback, will take on board the fact that corrections to their current operating procedures are necessary, but have taken legal counsel in preparation for a class action if required.

Details of the case against TripAdvisor can be found on this link to KwikChex

And details of the full Promote & Protect service for hotels and restaurants can be found here

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You run a reputable business. Your customers say nice things about you. Then one day you find that someone is saying something that is very far from nice – and that anyone trying to find out about you and your business is likely to read it and believe it.

KwikChex.com, an online reputation verification business has been carrying out extensive research on the problem.

The conclusion is that it is widespread, growing, and extremely damaging – and it is being exacerbated by the products of some very large brands, including Google and McAfee.

Here are just a few examples of what is on the web at the moment:

About a Hairdressing Salon in Florida, USA:

‘The salon IS owned by husband and wife and althought (sic) prices cannot be beat the owner conducts himself in an inappropriate manner! He mixes his own solution in the back using mostly formaldehyde and constantly offers free massages to UNDERAGE girls! He is so sleezy!!!(sic)’

About a High School in New York

‘My brother is a 10th grader involved with heroin injecting and crack/ marijuana because of the crazy stress..SEND your kids here if you wanna RUIN THEM.’

About a DJ business in Melbourne Australia

‘The worst of the worst! The DJ you provided hands down ruined my wedding. Very unprofessional company. Full of lies and have no idea what they are doing. I have never seen a company write reviews for themselves! My husband fell for it and we paid for it on my most special day!’

About a Michelin starred, celebrity chef-owned London Restaurant

‘Shockingly poor  - horrendous service followed by mediocre food. We left after the starter as it took 40 minutes and still no main course had arrived. Not only that but we had asked 5 staff when it would be coming and no one came back to apologise. This was after spending over £150 on wine alone. Pathetic! Go to the River Cafe for a better Italian experience‎.’

These all appear on Google Reviews. (On Google Maps).  Such reviews can be posted anonymously by anyone – and even though there is no verification process and the owners absolutely refute them, requests to Google to have them removed have been ignored or denied.

And it’s not only Google that enables such online malice in the apparent pursuit of ‘consumer awareness’ – nor is it confined to small businesses and high schools.

The following appears as a review on the McAfee SiteAdvisor review for the official site of the UK Labour Party – the elected government party:

‘This web site spams using third (party) various online marketing companies. It also has a list of convicted child perverts within its ranks who like passing photographs of kids to party members. Best to avoid this web site, as their messages are 80% lies.’

Or, again from McAfee Site Advisor, this review for Microsoft’s website:

‘if you access this domain you risk to unwillingly download and install malicious software (virus, Trojans, spyware, etc) that may damage your computer’.

The Google and McAfee review systems get a dose of their own medicine too – with reviewers using their own systems to both maliciously attack the companies and to complain about these very issues.

Here are a few examples:

Google Map Reviews on Google (HQ)

‘HOW CAN ANYONE LIKE GOOGLE STAY IN BUSINESS I SPOKE TO ONE OF THERE (sic) REPS YESTERDAY HE WAS RUDE TO ME SWORE AT ME THEN TALKED ABOUT HOW HE AND SOME OF HIS CO WORKERS ENJYOED (sic) BEING PEDO….  (sic) WELL I CANT EVEN FINISH THE STATEMENT I AM SO DISGUSTED I JUST HOPE THERES NOT A DAY CARE THERE’‎

‘Why does Google Maps allow postings in this area? What has it got to do with searching for a location? They do not check for slander FIRST. They just allow people to post what they want. We have a wrong posting on our map location and we have asked google now over and over to remove this FALSE statement made by this person. We spend a lot of money with Google Adwords for both businesses that we run, and to see this terrible service from Google is a JOKE! They don’t reply back to your flagging, they don’t remove it when it is SLANDER. Lets post about Google – they charge you a lot of money in their Google Adwords and you don’t even come up to the top hits when you pay for this service. They charge too much for their terrible service.‎’

Reviews on McAfee SiteAdvisor – about McAfee SiteAdvisor

‘THEY DON’T PROTECT YOU FROM SITE THAT ARE NOTHING BUT FRAUDULENT SITES. ‘

‘People here seem to be creating multiple accounts just to spam other sites with fake reviews and people might probably believe them?’

‘Good Reviews’

There is also overwhelming evidence of fraudulent good reviews. The majority are posted to fool consumers into doing business with scammers. Many, though are now being placed to counter false bad reviews that businesses are having difficulty removing – several businesses that have contacted KwikChex have admitted to this tactic – and below is another post on the Google HQ reviews that claims that Google employees encourage this practice.

‘I wrote letters to Google and made several phone calls about a problem with their map review service. I never received a reply back Google eventually emailed me about the issue but declined to help saying they could do nothing and I should get my buddies to write bogus positive reviews to counter act a bad review left by a nut job out to cause harm to my business.

The research also revealed the following comment on a ‘This site is good’ McAfee SiteAdvisor review regarding the Ku Klux Clan official website:

‘If you breed with blacks or Mexicans you’re actually breeding backwards. But that’s just science.’

In fact, posting fake good reviews can lead to prosecution, as was demonstrated last year when the New York attorney general’s office prosecuted Lifestyle Lift, a cosmetic surgery company when evidence emerged that they had instructed employees to file good reviews. They settled the case with a payment of $300,000. And Andrew M. Cuomo, New York’s attorney general, said in a statement that Lifestyle Lift’s

“attempt to generate business by duping consumers was cynical, manipulative and illegal.”

It is illegal in many counties, including throughout the European Union – but this is not stopping the growth, as it seems that awareness amongst consumers and businesses about the laws already in place is very limited. And as long as review sites allow anonymity and make little or no attempt to verify reviews, the process of law will continue to be obstructed and the problem will inevitably keep on growing.

The Scale and Significance of the Problem

The KwikChex research identified thousands of review and complaints sites – and still it was only the tip of the iceberg. (A Google search using ‘review sites for businesses’ stated that about 196 million results had been found and whilst the majority will be duplicates, it still highlights the scale of the issue).

Many, like Google Map Reviews, McAfee SiteAdvisor and Yelp are very big names, carrying millions of reviews. Some try harder than others to guard against abuse – but the overwhelming conclusion is that far from helping consumers, the spread of such sites and lack of verification of the truthfulness of the reviews causes more confusion and doubt – and is certainly capable of ruining the reputation of many very good businesses, many of whom will not even be aware that they are being attacked. In effect, it means that millions of good reviews could have been placed in a clear attempt to defraud consumers and millions of bad reviews could have been placed by competitors, disgruntled former employees or others with a personal agenda.

Solutions

Following the research, which was conducted to assist KwikChex in providing the best way to identify, verify, promote and defend the world’s best businesses and help protect consumers, KwikChex is launching a range of initiatives and services, including.

This website – centre of the Feedblack Campaign – Feedblack is the campaign name and term being used by KwikChex to identify and rectify the problem of false and malicious reviews and accusations and can be used by consumers and businesses to report all suspected cases.

The Authenticated Review System. It enables KwikChex to robustly verify the authenticity of customer reviews whilst protecting the privacy of reviewers. The system has already been developed for various sectors and countries and is currently being implemented. KwikChex is now contacting review sites to request cooperation. We are also seeking approval (via evaluation and monitoring) from government departments across the world that will provide increased reassurance for consumers.

KwikChex Monitor – a part of the KwikChex Gold membership that keeps track and sends alerts of any web content that mentions your business. Not just your main brand, but your executives, your sub-brands, and even your competition and suppliers.

All of the above are part of the KwikChex.com verification and protection service.

Join our facebook campaign ‘Web of Lies’ to rid the web of fake and malicious online reviews – Click here

For more information and enquiries, please contact info@kwikchex.com

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