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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on August 21, 2024 at 11:14

"This" is common practice by PR firms that work in the O&G space.  Most are not this brazen or lacking in professional ability.  They also promote things like a $10,000 dollar donation to an entity with high public regard such as the Shriner's Cripple Children's Hospital or the local volunteer fire department. Do not be fooled!  The benefits that O&G companies expect to receive when they pay a PR firm far out weigh what the community will get in return.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on August 22, 2024 at 1:49

New FTC rule bans fake business reviews

Chief: Measure protects Americans from cheaters

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Krys’tal Griffin

Delaware News Journal USA TODAY NETWORK

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With a unanimous 5-0 vote last week, the Federal Trade Commission approved a new ban on businesses that prohibits the use of fake reviews and testimonials.

The rule will become effective 60 days after the date it is published in the Federal Register, the agency said.

On Aug. 15, the FTC announced the new rule, which allows the agency to deter AI-generated fake reviews and enforce civil penalties against violators who knowingly sell or purchase such content.

“Fake reviews not only waste people’s time and money, but also pollute the marketplace and divert business away from honest competitors,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “By strengthening the FTC’s toolkit to fight deceptive advertising, the final rule will protect Americans from getting cheated, put businesses that unlawfully game the system on notice and promote markets that are fair, honest and competitive.”

A sampling of what the rule does:

● Reviews and testimonials that misrepresent that they are created by someone who does not exist, such as AIgenerated content; by someone who does not have real experience with the business, its products, or its services; or misrepresent the experience of the person authoring the review or testimonial, are prohibited.

● Businesses cannot provide compensation or other incentives in exchange for writing customer reviews that express a particular opinion, positive or negative. ● Certain reviews and testimonials written by company insiders that fail to “clearly and conspicuously”disclose the author’s business ties are prohibited, such as those given by officers or managers.

For consumers who are frustrated by negative reviews being removed from business pages or fake social media status being presented online, the FTC also included coverage for those issues:

● Businesses cannot state that reviews on their website represent all or most of the reviews submitted if reviews have been suppressed based on their ratings or negative sentiments.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on August 22, 2024 at 2:41

Google is backing a plan by the Federal Trade Commission to curb fake reviews online, a rare endorsement by the tech giant of the agency’s aggressive enforcement stance under Chair Lina Khan.

The company — which fields millions of reviews annually across its search engine, app store and other products — has faced pressure alongside rivals like Yelp and Amazon to crack down on misleading submissions that dupe consumers into buying goods and services online.

Now Google is speaking out in support of a new FTC rule that will allow enforcers to punish businesses that create phony or misleading reviews, joining the likes of Yelp.

https://sli.washingtonpost.com/imp?s=875968&li=technology202&m=11aa23d8bbf4b23d2da5cc551161a105&p=66c73c0554e7751dec20e564&stpe=static" border="0" style="max-height: 12px;" class="CToWUd"/>

“Fundamentally, we can’t provide our service if we’re not doing so in a safe and credible way … and so having the benefit of an agency codification of what good behavior looks like is really helpful for us in that mission,” Google General Counsel Halimah DeLaine Prado told the Tech Brief.

The rule was finalized last week and set to take effect in October. It would prohibit online reviews and firsthand accounts that falsely claim to have been written by a real person, including AI-generated posts, as well as those that misrepresent the experiences of the person sharing it. It would also bar businesses from purchasing or suppressing reviews by consumers, positive or negative.

Khan, a Democrat, said in a statement last week that the plan “will protect Americans from getting cheated, put businesses that unlawfully game the system on notice, and promote markets that are fair, honest, and competitive.”

By implementing the rule, the FTC will more easily be able to issue fines against violators, a key enforcement tool that has been weakened by recent court rulings.

Google has previously reported removing tens of millions of reviews for violating its policies and has filed lawsuits against “bad actors” who allegedly sought to deceive consumers. Last year, the Alphabet unit voiced support for the FTC using civil penalties to “further deter bad actors.”

DeLaine Prado said fake review submissions are a “rapidly building problem,” adding that Google has worked to “beat that back.” The FTC rule, she said, would “further bolster” industry efforts.

Yelp, another high-profile source of consumer reviews online, has also embraced the FTC’s push. Aaron Schur, Yelp’s general counsel, said in a statement that the rule “will improve the review landscape for consumers and help level the playing field for businesses.” Amazon said it was reviewing the final rule. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

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