With the new BIS guidelines coming into force to guard customers from fake online reviews of products, tech giant companies, along e-commerce platforms, will now face closer scrutiny of product reviews on their respective platforms
The guidelines, prescribing specific responsibilities for the review author and the review administrator, went live on Friday and are now applicable to every online platform which publishes consumer reviews
The new norms have been finalised by the BIS and came into being after the Department of Consumer Affairs received several complaints about fake reviews of products being posted by e-commerce companies on social media and their platforms
As far as platforms like Google and Meta go, the new rules will require them to validate the real person behind the review through specified six-right mechanisms which means fake accounts created just for review writing will go away over time or won’t be able to be reviewed
For platforms like Swiggy and Zomato, their reviews at restaurant level are partially transparent “but the process of food item level review is not transparent at all and will have to be designed accordingly”, Taparia told IANS
For ecommerce platforms, the new guidelines will ensure that negative reviews are not suppressed without reason thereby ensuring that other consumers will come to know of problems sooner
According to the new set of guidelines, both consumers and suppliers/sellers have reported some problems with online reviews
“These problems might be intentional or unintentional, but can lead to a degradation of trust in the online review process,” read the BIS document