Fake reviews: this wronged hotelier got Google convicted

< /p> Image source: Pixabay

False negative online reviews are a real time bomb for a professional, and Raoul Salama, owner of the Château de Balleure in Saône-et-Loire, knows something about it. The latter was the subject of false derogatory comments from Internet users accompanied by bad ratings.

If the latter were not serious in this approach, the damage was done, and it ended by damaging the reputation of its establishment, according to France 3 Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.

Sanctions against false reviews?

Especially since this hotel also enjoys very good ratings with a 10/10 on Booking.com and 5/5 on TripAdvisor. Therefore, the business leader would like more seriousness from the Tech giant, and that at least its AI is able to spot these false reviews.

In his fight, Raoul Salama has just obtained a first legal victory. Indeed, “Google was condemned in summary proceedings for its slowness in transmitting the identities of the people behind the false reviews”, reports our colleague from public media.

Google France did not wish to comment on this ongoing affair. But the Mountain View firm claims to do its utmost to combat this problem. For example, the search engine deleted 115 million fake reviews globally last year.

This does not convince the socialist MP, Cécile Untermaier, who intends to propose two amendments aimed at forcing Google to certify the authenticity of reviews in order to better inform consumers.

We know that they are very sensitive to risks. In 2020, digital marketing company BazaarVoice conducted a survey on this subject among 10,000 people in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia.

In detail , almost three quarters of them believe that the retail sector must be subject to new standards to better combat fake reviews.

They suggest that fines could reach 16% of the company's income. mark in case of violation of the regulations. 42% of those surveyed believe that the presence of fraudulent reviews posted by employees would undermine their trust. This figure rises to 34% with regard to false evaluations of individuals.

If these situations play on the nerves of traders, some prefer to have fun with it. Like this cafe owner from Saint-Malo who set out to become the city's most recommended restaurant on TripAdvisor, without ever having served a dish.

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