Google will now punish businesses for fake reviews
Businesses determined to have fake reviews will have some restrictions placed against them.
Google is now coming for businesses with fake reviews on Google Maps or its other platforms. In a post on its support site, the company says it will take every fake review on its platform very seriously.
With about 11% of Google reviews reportedly being fake, it's not shocking that they have decided to get rid of as much of it as possible. Now, businesses determined to have fake reviews will have some restrictions placed against them.
First, it won't be able to accept any more reviews during this period. And, all reviews of the business will be removed for a while. This way, no more lies can be fed into the system and fewer people can get lied to.
In addition, Google will clearly warn customers that this business has had fake reviews removed, making it easy to spot a company that's been dishonest about its reputation.
Google Business is one of the leading online platforms for businesses, so it's not surprising that it would want to maintain its integrity by ridding itself of any false accounts or testimonials.
It's unclear how exactly they plan to know what a fake review is and what isn't. But if an account gets flagged for fake reviews, it can still send an appeal to the platform for further review. It's also not sure if any restriction will be placed on accounts that leave a fake review.
The outcome could be a double-edged sword. Businesses might benefit if negative reviews are incorrectly identified as fake, but they could also suffer if genuine positive reviews are mistakenly removed.
This had been rolled out a while ago in the UK, but now, it appears Google is rolling this out worldwide.
Emmanuel Oyedeji
