
Telco Astroturfing Tries To Bring Down Reviews Of Susan Crawford's Book - cameron913
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130722/17503523891/telco-astroturfing-tries-to-bring-down-reviews-susan-crawfords-book.shtml
======
cameron913
A talk on the book in question (as well as audio) can be found here:
[http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/interactive/events/2012/12/craw...](http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/interactive/events/2012/12/crawford)
and if you prefer YouTube, here:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R4xhwy-1oI](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R4xhwy-1oI)
It's a pretty good overview of the American broadband infrastructure problem.

~~~
graedus
Really great talk, thanks for the link.

------
t0dd
Pretty convincing analysis. Many of the one star reviews follow a similar
template: "I am a [profession X here]" (a jeweler, a freelance video editor, a
professional truck driver, a pharmacy technician, etc.). Weird all of them,
usually from rural areas, go out of their way to declare what they do for a
living. Not to mention a majority of these "customers"\--this is their only
review on Amazon at all.

~~~
Goronmon
Yeah, I was actually surprised at how generic those reviews were. I mean, I've
been reading Amazon reviews for a long time, but this just takes things to a
new level.

------
simonh
My personal favourite review:

[http://www.amazon.com/review/R1150DW8W7EM1/ref=cm_cr_rdp_per...](http://www.amazon.com/review/R1150DW8W7EM1/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0300153139&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=)

------
incision
This happens with any and everything remotely contentious on Amazon. It's a
default soapbox/battleground [0] for the Internet. Though, this certainly
appears more organized than the typical ranting.

It's an interesting problem.

I tend to think that Amazon is big enough now that they could require a
purchase prior to review without facing a shortage of content. I'm guessing
someone over there has calculated that the sale potential to creators and
readers of unqualified reviews outweighs any negative impact they have.

Allowing angry reviews against one view is a great sales opportunity for
material supporting the opposing view.

0:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6092631](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6092631)

------
wesleyd
Next time I do gonzo PR, I shall pick a powerful enemy, create an astroturf
campaign, and make it look like my enemy did it.

------
8ig8
Isn't the author looking at the data to find patterns to then measure it by.
I'm no expert, but it seems like he is trying to find patterns to support a
preconceived opinion (which I don't necessarily disagree with).

~~~
zecho
I agree, but a very damning statistic is buried at the end of the article. The
vast majority of these 1-star reviewers don't have other reviews on Amazon,
which seems very odd, considering the book's subject matter is wonkish.

~~~
interpol_p
"The vast majority" is putting it lightly. All but one 1-star reviewer have
zero other reviews. And the one 1-star reviewer with multiple reviews is
Richard Bennett of ITIF, someone who is verifiably real and biased against the
book.

------
anigbrowl
Hmm...go to [http://www.amazon.com/Captive-Audience-Telecom-Industry-
Mono...](http://www.amazon.com/Captive-Audience-Telecom-Industry-
Monopoly/product-
reviews/0300153139/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_1?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0)

    
    
      149 Reviews
      5 star:	 (99)
      4 star:	 (8)
      3 star:	 (4)
      2 star:	 (6)
      1 star:	 (32)
    

Yes, there's some astroturfing going on. It seems to be at both ends of the
scale though. The other possibility besides Telco astroturfing is that some of
the negative reviews are left by people who dislike the Obama administration
(which Crawford formerly worked for). A negative mention on a conservative
blog might have attracted readers with a negative opinion to the Amazon.com
page.

~~~
ordinary
The most recent 46 5 star reviews were written after the Techdirt article was
posted, and many of them refer to it:

JakeI: _The ONE STARS reviews posted here are actually people who WORK for
these TELECOM companies and want to keep making fortunes off of misguiding
people. Ignore them, report them, and move on._

a reader: _Just a note to the paid consultants who have been discovered due to
the spike of one star reviews from brand new accounts, I 'm buying the book
thanks to you._

vge: _Susan P. Crawford has written an excellent, 5-star quality book, don 't
listen to the 1-star telco astroturfers._

Sid Wright: _An injustice has been done. This book was given 0 stars by fake
reviewers when it actually deserves a real, honest score._

Of course, those 5 star "Astroturfing sucks" reviews are just as useless as
the 1 star "I am a rural truck driver and..." reviews, but with the Techdirt
article as a cause, at the very least we have an alternate explanation. I see
no reason to assume we're dealing with a second astroturfing campaign.

I should add that even if those 46 comments are all legit-but-useless 5 star
reviews, then there's still 53 left that were made before then, which I lack
the time to look more deeply into. Your conclusion might be accurate for
those.

------
tzs
The fake 5 star reviews now handily outnumber the fake 1 star reviews.

~~~
eli
Yay?

------
curiouscats
Do any related laws require disclosure of paid for or fake reviews? Blogs must
state financial interest in reviews they do now:

[http://internet-law.lawyers.com/Truth-in-Blogging-New-FTC-
Bl...](http://internet-law.lawyers.com/Truth-in-Blogging-New-FTC-Blog-
Disclosure-Rules.html)

It would seem this type of action would be done (in this case) by lobbyists
(paid for by lobbyists), I wonder if there are rules on lobbyists paying for
fake reviews (since lobbyists do have some constraints on actions that others
don't).

~~~
diminoten
Why does there have to be a law against this? If Amazon wants to allow
astroturfing, what say does the government have in it?

~~~
pessimizer
As long as the reviews aren't presented as being honest or real. If they are
presented as honest or real, it sounds like fraud to me.

If I sell you a cinderblock in a box and tell you it's a computer, I think the
government should have a say. Same situation if I sell you a book and tell you
that Bob the fisherman from New Orleans thought it contained real original
scholarship about Soviet central planning, and it turns out that his name
isn't even Bob.

~~~
diminoten
Sure, but that's not what is happening here. Someone not involved in the
purchase or sale of the item is making statements about said item.

That's entirely different.

~~~
pessimizer
No, Amazon is the publisher. I think they're responsible.

~~~
diminoten
What do you mean no? Amazon isn't writing the reviews, someone else is.

------
praptak
I wish for reviews + social. You know, somehow combining the power of the web
with the good old process used to find out whether something is good or crap -
asking the people you know.

A review by someone 2 links away from me is _very_ unlikely to be spoofed and
I reckon that even 3 links away from me (this is probably a large enough
pool?) would be quite trustworthy.

