Trustpilot has published its first transparency report as the veracity of online reviews has been the subject of increased scrutiny.
In 2020, 39 million reviews were posted to Trustpilot, and of those, the firm has said that 2.2 million were removed for being “fake or harmful”.
- 1.5 million were removed by its fraud detection software.
- Almost 660,000 were removed manually
- Firms reported about 469,000 suspicious reviews, of which Trustpilot removed 62%
- Consumers reported nearly 90,000 suspicious reviews, of which Trustpilot removed 12%.
The online review industry has come under fire recently, as the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority launched a probe last year into whether sites are doing enough to prevent misleading reviews. Trustpilot generates revenue by charging businesses to send invitations to review their services.
Francois Godard from Enders Analysis said “The underlying problem is, specialised sites like Trustpilot are stuck in a conflict of interest: to generate audiences they need to host critical, credible voices; to keep clients they need positive reviews and ratings.”