India Creates New Regulations To Curb Fake Reviews Online

On Monday India launched a crackdown against fake reviews and unverified ratings in a bid to make the online world and e-commerce more authentic and less misleading for users.

The Indian government has released a set of guidelines for companies from Alphabet’s Google, Meta Platform’s Facebook and Instagram, and Amazon to travel sites and food delivery apps that depend on reviews to validate products and services. 

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The new framework will begin with voluntary changes and moderations. It will then progress to mandatory requirements if the growth of fake reviews continues, reported TechCrunch. This comes over a year after New Delhi proposed tougher e-commerce rules to restrict false reviews and overall address “widespread cheating” complaints.

The government guidelines aim to limit fake reviews on online platforms that will come into force from November 25. The Department of Consumer Affairs has created a standard titled “IS 19000:2022” that will be managed by the nation’s standards body Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

Under the guidelines, platforms will be required to set up review administrators to moderate reviews using automated tools or manually to filter out biases and restrict fraudulent reviews. The reviews should also include the publishing date and star rating, the framework said.