# Writing fake online reviews could be made illegal **URL:** \ **Category:** In The News\ **Tags:** via-bbc-news-tech, writing\ **Created:** [23 July 2021 02:29 UTC](https://forum.devtalk.com/t/writing-fake-online-reviews-could-be-made-illegal/14341 "2021-07-23T02:29:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CommunityNews](https://forum.devtalk.com/user_avatar/forum.devtalk.com/communitynews/32/1113_2.png) [@CommunityNews](https://forum.devtalk.com/u/CommunityNews)\ **Post date:** [23 July 2021 02:29 UTC](https://forum.devtalk.com/t/writing-fake-online-reviews-could-be-made-illegal/14341/1 "2021-07-23T02:29:23Z")
> A plan to crack down on online rip-offs has been outlined by the government. Read in full here: > **[Writing fake online reviews could be made illegal](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57887035)** > > A plan to crack down on online rip-offs has been outlined by the government. _This thread was posted by one of our members via one of our news source trackers._ ---
**Author:** ![AstonJ](https://forum.devtalk.com/user_avatar/forum.devtalk.com/astonj/32/7_2.png) [@AstonJ](https://forum.devtalk.com/u/AstonJ)\ **Post date:** [23 July 2021 02:29 UTC](https://forum.devtalk.com/t/writing-fake-online-reviews-could-be-made-illegal/14341/3 "2021-07-23T02:29:42Z")
I thought it already was! 🙃 ---
**Author:** ![ohm](https://forum.devtalk.com/user_avatar/forum.devtalk.com/ohm/32/559_2.png) [@ohm](https://forum.devtalk.com/u/ohm)\ **Post date:** [23 July 2021 07:32 UTC](https://forum.devtalk.com/t/writing-fake-online-reviews-could-be-made-illegal/14341/4 "2021-07-23T07:32:49Z")
“[…] by the government” What government? I guess, since this is BBC, that it’s the UK government, which means diddly squat for the rest of the world. > [@AstonJ](#): > > I thought it already was! 🙃 I believe it is in Denmark as well. However, online reviews are only ever of use when it’s not on the company’s own web pages. If you control the platform and get a bad review, you’d just delete it. There’s many 3rd party review platforms, but most have the same problem, that they are paid by the company’s and therefore the companies control the platform and can have bad reviews deleted. There’s been many cases of this on the Danish based Trustpilot. ---
**Author:** ![AstonJ](https://forum.devtalk.com/user_avatar/forum.devtalk.com/astonj/32/7_2.png) [@AstonJ](https://forum.devtalk.com/u/AstonJ)\ **Post date:** [23 July 2021 15:44 UTC](https://forum.devtalk.com/t/writing-fake-online-reviews-could-be-made-illegal/14341/5 "2021-07-23T15:44:02Z")
Amazon are not too bad when it comes to writing your own reviews - they’ve never censored any of mine… but others (like Waitrose!) are really bad, sometimes they give you a ‘money off voucher’ to keep you quiet as well 😂 > [@ohm](#): > > I believe it is in Denmark as well. It might be worth checking… I always thought it was here, but clearly turned out not to be (if the BBC are right). ---
**Author:** ![jss](https://forum.devtalk.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/cdc98d/32.png) [@jss](https://forum.devtalk.com/u/jss)\ **Post date:** [1 August 2021 09:48 UTC](https://forum.devtalk.com/t/writing-fake-online-reviews-could-be-made-illegal/14341/6 "2021-08-01T09:48:06Z")
Will this be enforceable? ---
**Author:** ![davearonson](https://forum.devtalk.com/user_avatar/forum.devtalk.com/davearonson/32/591_2.png) [@davearonson](https://forum.devtalk.com/u/davearonson)\ **Post date:** [10 August 2021 18:12 UTC](https://forum.devtalk.com/t/writing-fake-online-reviews-could-be-made-illegal/14341/7 "2021-08-10T18:12:19Z")
I’m first wondering if it will even be _detectable_, at least by anyone “the” government will listen to. Then will it rise to the level where “the” government will GAF enough to _bother_ even _trying_ to enforce it. (Modulo of course any _other_ motives whatever government may have for doing enforcement against a particular site – _or not_.) Only aftering all the above in the affirmative, do we get to the question of _can_ they? To which my answer is, almost certainly not, so long as they’re not _also_ going after _entire sites_ that are dodgy in the first place, springing up all over the world and claiming to be perfectly legitimate review (or sales) sites. It’s bound to be just as much a game of whack-a-mole as spam, phishing, and other forms of online fraud have always been.