Displaying items by tag: Google

Amazon and Google are under UK competition watchdog scrutiny regarding fake reviews on their platforms. The competition regulator is probing the tech giants in relation to breaches of consumer protection law. Their ‘specific concerns’ were raised about whether the two companies were ‘doing enough’ to detect ‘fake and misleading reviews or suspicious patterns of behaviour.’ An initial sweep, begun in May 2020, cast doubts on whether the firms investigate and remove such reviews, and if they impose ‘adequate sanctions’ to deter reviewers or businesses from violating rules on honest posts - in particular by taking action against repeat offenders. ‘Our worry is that millions of online shoppers could be misled by reading fake reviews and then spending their money based on those recommendations’, said the watchdog. Last September, Amazon had to delete 20,000 product reviews, written by seven of its top UK reviewers, following a Financial Times investigation discovering reviewers were paid to post thousands of five-star ratings.

Chad Robichaux, of the Mighty Oaks Foundation (a charity supporting those suffering from wartime trauma), was told he could not use the label 'Christian' to boost his advert on the Google-owned YouTube platform as it violated the site's advertising policy. When Mr Robichaux objected to their decision, YouTube said that targeting users based on their religion was in breach of their advertising policy, but adverts can include the term 'Christian' in them and still hope to reach a Christian audience. Mr Robichaux then accused the tech giant of religious discrimination, saying, ‘We ran the exact same ad with the keyword Muslim and it was approved but Christian was not. Additionally, we've run ads with the keyword Christian for years. This year alone we had 150,000 impressions on that word in our ads.’ He was told the discriminating policy was new. Google has yet to comment publicly on the matter.