USA Introduces a ban on fake and AI generated reviews

So the FTC in America has made a big rule on fake reviews and AI created tesimonials.

From yesterday The Federal Trade Commission voted unanimously to ban marketers from using fake reviews, such as those generated with AI technology, and other misleading advertising practices.

The ban also forbids marketers from exaggerating their own influence by, for example, paying for bots to inflate their follower count.

With the concurrent rise of e-commerce, influencer marketing and generative AI, more advertisers are turning to automated chatbots such as ChatGPT to quickly generate user reviews for products sold online.

Along with prohibiting reviews written by nonhumans, the FTC’s rule also forbids companies from paying for either positive or negative reviews to falsely boost or denigrate a product. It also forbids marketers from exaggerating their own influence by, for example, paying for bots to inflate their follower count. Violations of the rule could result in fines being issued for each violation, according to the rule. This means that for an e-commerce site with hundreds of thousands of reviews, penalties for fake or manipulated reviews could quickly add up.

With the rise of e-commerce, influencer marketing and generative AI, more advertisers are turning to automated chatbots such as ChatGPT to quickly generate user reviews for products sold online.

This will be an interesting decision as their is growing disvion between the EU and USA in terms of free speech especially with X and Elon Musk this summer.