A guy who "sold" fake reviews on TripAdvisor is going to jail. Nine months in prison and 8,000 Euros in costs and damages.
Such wins need to be well publicized to send the message out that there is a risk in perpetrating fake news. Risk of being caught and chances of being persecuted is one of the best way to deter such actions.ACtions have consequences.
It sounds like the "unlawful" aspect is linked solely to fraud (i.e., using multiple names for reviews); anything else would fall under the terms of service for the platform.
It's interesting to hear that AI is being used to help counter the problem, though hopefully the algorithms used are better than what YouTube uses for flagging content violations.
Sorry what a crock. He gets nine months (of which he may do 2 or 3) and pays a small fine.
In the interim, many folks have been damaged by his/her lies and have lost money and precious time.
Glad to see something is being done. Unfortunately, as pointed out, this type of behaviour has been around for years in one form or another.
Don't get me wrong, I am glad to see it, but it really does need to be more public.....ah well off to work for the day......
I would not have put this case into the category of "fake news." Yes, this was about fraud, lying, deception, and possible personal financial gain. However, TripAdvisor (and Yelp, Amazon, GoodReads, etc.) reviews are individual, personal statements, just like the public comments in this forum or in the reader comments trail after a news article.
In my lexicon, fake news refers to false or deliberately misleading news published either by established news organizations or fraudulent sources masquerading as such. In some cases the news source, itself, appears ot be the creator of the falsehood; in other cases it appears that a third party pl.anted the false information and the news source published it without adequate fact checking or verification.
Not all lies are fake news, and not all fake news articles are lies.
I am reminded of the many instances in which the New China News Agency published extracts from The Onion, apparently thinking that to be a legitimate US news source, and then other western news agencies re-published based on the NCNA article. THOSE were definitely fake news.
> CraginS (Contributor II) posted a new reply in Industry News on 10-02-2018 09:29
> Not all lies
> are fake news, and not all fake news articles are lies.
I'm going to go lie down, now ...
@Calv1n wrote:Such wins need to be well publicized to send the message out that there is a risk in perpetrating fake news. Risk of being caught and chances of being persecuted is one of the best way to deter such actions.ACtions have consequences.
@Calv1n - Maybe it was a slip of the fingers, but I suspect you mean prosecuted - not persecuted! Two thoughts:
@JoePete wrote:
Since the days of Aristotle, we have been teaching ourselves how to discern truth from distraction. <snip> If people are susceptible to "fake news" then they have only themselves to blame.
People who can't tell fake news from real have more than themselves to blame. See The Death of Truth and Thinking Fast and Slow. Using logic is hard; it requires training and practice. Unscrupulous would-be leaders know this and use various methods, including propaganda and lies, to confuse and disorient the populace. The Death of Truth suggests that education and a free press are required to effectively counter such methods. I recall reading in The Demon-Haunted World that American education has been in decline for decades. This is probably also true of other Western nations. Today's populist leaders are doing their best to discredit the press.
All I can suggest is point out falsehoods whenever you see them. Ignoring the lies is easier and less work, but it is not helping.
Mike