Court orders Yelp to reveal names of anonymous reviewers

[RazorNF]

Yelp: Court Ruling on Anonymous Customer Reviews 'Could Have a Chilling Effect on Free Speech'

A U.S. court has ordered local business review website Yelp to reveal the names of seven of its anonymous reviewers.

The order follows a lawsuit filed by a firm called Hadeed Carpet Cleaning, which suspected that some of the reviews placed online about it were made up.

read more at http://searchenginewatch.com/articl...s-Could-Have-a-Chilling-Effect-on-Free-Speech

 

[alien51]

I think this case is not about curtailment of free speech, as what was being implied. But more about Fraud.

I think if you are a customer who received bad service, speaking out against the company is not a crime even if the company finds out who you are, the company cannot prosecute you if what you are complaining is the truth.

But making false review, IS a form of fraud.

As an e-commerce operator myself, i think it is a fair terms of service to tell customers that their IP address can be revealed to authorities if a Court has ordered for it.

I have contemplated about this all the time, how to deal with fake reviewers. These fake reviews can destroy businesses. And i did find in several freelance sites where rivals do pay money to people to write fake reviews to destroy a competitor.

 

[urlurl]

yelp is a joke, my wife left a legitimate review on a local restaurant, it wasn't 100% positive, but it was a fair and well written review. 1 week later it was removed. the only ones left posted are the glowing reviews obviously left by the owner of the restaurant. LMFAO