
Google deletes millions of negative TikTok reviews - rmason
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52808177
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notadog
To be clear, they had a good reason for removing the reviews.

> The video-sharing platform was inundated with one-star reviews after an
> Indian creator posted a spoof video of an acid attack.

> But Google intervened after it determined that critics had set up fake
> accounts to amplify their protests.

> After TikTok became embroiled in the backlash, Google removed more than 5
> million of its recent one-star reviews but left many others active.

> "When we learn of incidents of spam abuse, we review and take corrective
> action to remove inappropriate ratings and comments," he added.

~~~
duskwuff
As an example of the sort of manipulation that appears to be going on, there's
currently a one-star review with over 25,000 thumbs-ups pinned to the app
store page with the text:

> Tiktok is a bad app. I have become nervous, never sleep on the video. Hi,
> how hard can I work together but never even 100 out of 50, I am installing
> Tiktok if you have the answer to this thing. Fix as soon as possible. We are
> not crazy who make videos. I have made 600 videos on this, but till today,
> not a single viral video has been made or their videos are also going viral.
> I'm not installing Tic Tok so I don't

This is clearly not a human-written review -- it jumps between ideas at random
and breaks off in the middle of a sentence. It was almost certainly generated
based on segments of other negative reviews.

Nor is the number of votes on the review normal. It's remarkable for a single
recent review, even on a popular app like TikTok, to have even one thousand
thumbs-ups. (Compare the reviews on the Facebook app, for instance.) 25,000 is
absurd.

~~~
panpanna
> This is clearly not a human-written review

It could be a real review. I've seen far worse text from prominent engineers.

------
notadog
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23305064](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23305064)

~~~
fsflover
Details of the story from anonymous "insider":
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23306781](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23306781)

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playingchanges
Rating is back to 4.7 at this moment

~~~
duskwuff
2.9 here. I suspect the (probably fake) 1-star ratings are still pouring in.

