Mouthshut gags 80k fake user profiles
, ET Bureau|
Updated: Dec 05, 2017, 08.08 AM IST
BENGALURU: Mouthshut-.com, the user generated reviews and product discovery platform that pioneered auto rickshaw advertising in the early 2000s, has deleted 80,000 fake user profiles and their reviews from its website to reduce damage caused to various brands.
The review platform formed in 2000 by Faisal Farooqui, who famously filed a petition against the IT rules in the Supreme Court, pointed out that it took his team six months to complete the task and considering the platform gets thousands of reviews per day, it was difficult to weed out such anomalies.
“Few brands tend to stage themselves as consumers, or hire an agency to help them achieve positive mentions online. Some even attempt to AstroTurf such reviews. Earlier in 2012, we had deleted around 4,100 fake user accounts,” he said.
Farooqui set up a special internal team to monitor suspicious activities of such users by using advanced screening technology and automated algorithms. “I wouldn’t want Mouthshut to be portrayed as a platform that will tolerate non-genuine reviews or allow brands to manipulate ratings on our platform. There are a vast set of algorithms to pinpoint the flagged content.” It is a highly confidential set, which is not disclosed to anyone under any circumstances, not to its clients or employees.
It has even started an incentive-based, voluntary KYC verification for all its members in the last two years and claim to have a strong privacy policy in place wherein it does not reveal details of the review author under any circumstances, unless the author himself chooses to do so.
He said users should feel free to convey their experiences and brands should get a chance to improve customer engagement.
The review platform formed in 2000 by Faisal Farooqui, who famously filed a petition against the IT rules in the Supreme Court, pointed out that it took his team six months to complete the task and considering the platform gets thousands of reviews per day, it was difficult to weed out such anomalies.
“Few brands tend to stage themselves as consumers, or hire an agency to help them achieve positive mentions online. Some even attempt to AstroTurf such reviews. Earlier in 2012, we had deleted around 4,100 fake user accounts,” he said.
Farooqui set up a special internal team to monitor suspicious activities of such users by using advanced screening technology and automated algorithms. “I wouldn’t want Mouthshut to be portrayed as a platform that will tolerate non-genuine reviews or allow brands to manipulate ratings on our platform. There are a vast set of algorithms to pinpoint the flagged content.” It is a highly confidential set, which is not disclosed to anyone under any circumstances, not to its clients or employees.
It has even started an incentive-based, voluntary KYC verification for all its members in the last two years and claim to have a strong privacy policy in place wherein it does not reveal details of the review author under any circumstances, unless the author himself chooses to do so.
He said users should feel free to convey their experiences and brands should get a chance to improve customer engagement.
