Hunting down Fake, Paid Reviews on social media is India’s current goal

The rules in India will be together to rule out fake or paid reviews for products from cars to smartphones on e-commerce websites and social media, pursuant to the growing consumer outcry.

Soon, the government will announce a framework of regulations that will further target people paid to endorse merchandise, Rohit Kumar Singh, the most senior bureaucrat at India’s consumer affairs department, told reporters in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Then, these reviewers will be held liable in case of issues related to the product, Rohit added.

Furthermore, India is known to be the key market for Alphabet Inc’s Google and YouTube, which has sealed the deal on nearly half a billion users. 

The country’s savvy pioneer users have garnered huge followings by using these platforms to share their reviews of certain products, however information pertaining to whether they’re paid by companies to do so is certainly not disclosed.

India is engaging with a phenomenon that other more mature internet arenas have dealt with in past years. 

With 600 million smartphones and cheap mobile data, a plethora of Indians are using the internet to browse and purchase from soap to smartphones.

Source: Bloomberg

Photo Credit: Deccan Herald