Data Protection
Latest penalty means that embattled Meta has been fined around US$1-billion by the European Union since September last year.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook takes legal action against company over fake reviews
By our News Team | 2022
Business would create fictitious reviews and feedback for its clients in an effort to falsely increase their Customer Feedback Score.
Meta, the company that owns Facebook, has filed a lawsuit in the US state of California over the use of fake reviews on the social media platform. It is targeting one fake review seller who, it claims, had tried to manipulate Facebook’s systems to the benefit its customers.
The company confirmed in a statement that the action is being brought against Chad Taylor Cowan, who has been operating a business known as Customer Feedback Score Solutions, which specialised in provided fake reviews and feedback for businesses, with the intention of artificially increasing their Facebook Customer Feedback Score.
A user of Cowan’s services would be aiming to attract more customers through the fake positive reviews, and also to avoid any enforcement measures that Facebook may take against a business that receives frequent negative feedback. Such measures could include ad restrictions, financial penalties, or the disabling of accounts.
Photo by Greenwish from Pexels
According to Meta, its action is part of ongoing efforts to protect against and deter e-commerce abuse. Cowan’s actions, it said, were a breach of the social media platform’s terms.
Sought to evade Meta’s penalties for ongoing negative feedback
“Operating as Customer Feedback Score Solutions and using the website cfs.solutions, Cowan provided fake reviews and feedback for businesses to artificially increase the Facebook Customer Feedback Score and evade Meta’s detection and enforcement against misleading ads,” Meta explained.
It said it analysed feedback from users “on an ongoing basis to understand people’s experiences on our technologies. As a part of this work, some people receive surveys after clicking on ads to help understand whether the quality of the product they purchased met their expectations, the shipping was timely, and to learn more about their customer service experience”.
In this particular case, in exchange for payment, Cowan used a network of fraudulent and hired Facebook user accounts to provide fake customer reviews to artificially increase Customer Feedback Scores, drown out and minimise negative reviews, and avoid Facebook’s enforcement, Meta stated.
“This is also a direct violation of Meta’s Terms, Advertising and Page Policies, as well as California law.”
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