European Union to ban faking it online

Adam Turner
Monday, 12 February 2007 10:31

IT Policy - Regulation

marketing campaigns and "astroturfing" by vendors such as Sony could become illegal under a European directive that bans giving yourself a glowing review online under a fake name.

The ban on "falsely representing oneself as a consumer" will even go as far as applying to authors who praise their own books under a fake identity on websites such as Amazon, reports The Times.

The law comes into affect in the UK on December 31, after which offenders can be named and shamed by the consumer watchdog or taken to court.

While primarily aimed at hotels, restaurants and online shops posting glowing reviews about themselves, the ban has massive implications for organisations in the habit of creating fake grass roots campaigns - a practice known as astroturfing.

Sony has been caught faking it several times, the most recent before Christmas when it was discovered to be behind the fake blog AllIWantForXmasIsAPSP, which claimed to be the work of two teenagers lobbying their parents to buy them Sony's new portable games console. Previously Sony was also found to be behind a PSP graffitti campaign.

Websites claiming to run consumer reviews of products are also a key target of such laws.

Supposedly unsigned artists posting videos on YouTube as part of orchestrated marketing campaigns could also fall foul of the new laws. Even the practice of journalists nominating their own stories on news aggregate sites such as Slashdot and Digg could be at risk.