Meta updates its Community Feedback Policy to fight misleading reviews

When someone is thinking of buying a product, they usually read reviews to see what other people's opinions are about it. The feedback of the community could tip the scales in favor of buying something or not. However, a disingenuous review could also mislead you into purchasing a bad device, for example.

This is why Meta recently updated its Community Feedback Policy in the U.S. to ensure that people's reviews are "based on real purchasing experiences" and to keep misleading and potentially offensive feedback off of its platforms (via TechCrunch).

The new Community Feedback Policy provides clear guidelines on what types of feedback are allowed on Facebook and Instagram. It explicitly forbids:

• Manipulation of community feedback for deceiving and exploiting others for financial or personal benefit.
• Incentivization, which is any attempt to bribe someone into giving positive or negative ratings, reviews, or answers.
• Irrelevance. According to Meta, every review must be based on firsthand experience and be relevant to the intended usage of the product and/or business.
• Graphic or inappropriate content, which includes any "excessively graphic, inflammatory, violent, discriminatory, or threatening" media.
• Spam. Every feedback must comply with Meta's Spam policies which, among other things, forbid engagement baiting and high frequency content posting, sharing, or promoting.

As for how Meta will enforce its new feedback policy, the company shared that it's using automated technology and human reviewers to ensure that all feedback is compliant. However, as the tech giant stated, it could take time for its "enforcement mechanisms," including human reviewers, to learn what is fully compliant and what is not.

If you find a "suspicious review" on one of its platforms, Meta encourages you to report it. On Facebook, users can flag such a comment by tapping the three dots in the upper-right hand corner, or if they are on Instagram, they can do so by holding down or swiping left on the review. Businesses can report a suspicious review in Commerce Manager.