NEW DELHI: The Sunday Guardian used an Artificial Intelligence engine platform by the renowned Mozilla company, named ‘Fakespot’ to check the veracity of the reviews on Amazon.
Next time you open your Amazon app on your phone to buy a phone, and sort the short-listed phones on the basis of reviews with “4 star and above” and read all the “5 star reviews” to convince yourself, beware, for in all probability, the reviews may either be written by bots or are paid reviews. Or Amazon has “altered, modified or removed reviews from this listing.”
The stars, as per Amazon, are given by the buyers themselves. And hence, believing it to be true, new buyers consider these star ratings before buying the product.
After getting complaints and feedbacks from readers and users of Amazon that it was listing sub-standard products on its platforms and then allowing these to be sold in huge numbers by “manufactured and edited” reviews that portray cheap sub-standard products as of the best quality, The Sunday Guardian used an Artificial Intelligence engine platform by the renowned “Mozilla” company, named “Fakespot” that analyses such reviews to check the veracity and feedback that it had received from its readers.
On 30 July, Apple iPhone 14 Plus (512 GB), as per the review on the Amazon site, was rated 4.5 stars with a total of 1,955 reviews. However, the report by Fakespot of the said product listed on Amazon showed that in reality it was a 3.5-star, “B” category product.
Most importantly, it found that “that Amazon has altered, modified or removed reviews from this listing with approximately 152 reviews altered”.
The altering of review, which is the first step that the buyer goes through while purchasing any product from Amazon, India’s largest e-commerce portal, may stop the buyer from getting an honest review of the product by those who have already used it. The analysis report suggests that some reviews that would have deterred new buyers from choosing the phone and buying it were either deleted or modified.
The Sunday Guardian’s multiple requests for a response on this matter sent to Amazon India on how Amazon India utilises technology and strategies to detect and mitigate fake reviews, ensure transparency and authenticity in customer feedback, and collaborate with sellers while providing mechanisms for users to report suspicious reviews, did not elicit any response until the time the report went to press.
However, some people who buy products from Amazon regularly say that such examples, if true, are rare and that overall, Amazon reviews are accurate.
The analysis of Oneplus 12 (16 GB ram, 512 gb) that was “Amazon recommended’ in the Android phone category with a price of almost Rs 70,000, gave similar results. While Amazon has given it 4.4 out of 5 stars, the review by Fakespot gave it 3.5 stars while stating that “Amazon has altered, modified or removed reviews from this listing”. It stated that approximately 1,764 reviews were altered. Oneplus stands by its quality.
Similarly, while searching for a 1.5 tonne split AC and sorting it by highest stars, Amazon showed an AC manufactured by Lloyd which it said has accumulated 4 stars given by 2,893 alleged customers and it was bought more than 2,000 times in the last month. It was given the tag of “Amazon’s choice”—which means that the said product was “highly rated, well-priced products available to ship immediately.” The products with these tags are generally the first choice of the customers.
However, while reviewing it on Fakespot, it emerged that the actual review was 1.5 stars as per customers’ feedback, while in Amazon, it is selling it as a 4-star product. It also stated that the analysis has detected that Amazon has “altered, modified or removed reviews” from this listing in approximately 12,966 cases. Lloyd stands by its quality.
According to the Fakespot analysis, “the listing/variation has anomalous review count history” and “there is high deception involved” in the review posted about his product. The analysis further found that only 50% of the reviews were found to be reliable. The product was categorized as “D” category (inferior) from category “C”, in which it was put earlier by the Fakespot analysis contrary to Amazon’s claim that it was the best product in its category.
In the TV segment, Sony Bravia 139 cm (55 inches) 4K Ultra HD Smart LED Google was shown at the top of the table under the best seller category. However, in the analysis by Fakespot, it was reviewed as “F”, the lowest category product in its segment. It found that Amazon has altered, modified or removed reviews for this listing for approximately 23,138 reviews. In December 2023, after being launched in 2007, Amazon had announced that its seller base had grown to over 14 lakh. The Indian marketplace of Amazon Business is the second biggest after the United States and its operating revenue was Rs 22,198 crore at the end of financial year 2033.
Fakespot, developed in 2016 by Saoud Kahlifah, was acquired by Mozilla in May 2023. Fakespot’s primary objective is to identify fake reviews using AI and Machine Learning systems which sellers use to artificially inflate product reputation, undermining the trustworthiness of review systems to the detriment of customers and ethically minded sellers. Fakespot reviews tell a buyer about the presence of deceptive reviews which artificially inflate a product’s ranking in search engines. Its accuracy is disputed by some of those it challenges. Clearly, a trusted platform such as Amazon needs to ensure that such issues, if found accurate, need to be addressed. It is considered the largest and most prestigious brand in the world, after all.