{"id":2876,"date":"2013-10-16T14:16:50","date_gmt":"2013-10-16T18:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/?p=2876"},"modified":"2013-10-16T14:16:50","modified_gmt":"2013-10-16T18:16:50","slug":"inside-pr-3-50-fake-reviewers-and-the-global-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/2013\/10\/16\/inside-pr-3-50-fake-reviewers-and-the-global-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside PR 3.50: Fake Reviewers and the Global Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_7845\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-2876-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/prworks\/IPR_350_FINAL.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/prworks\/IPR_350_FINAL.mp3\">http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/prworks\/IPR_350_FINAL.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/ca\/podcast\/inside-pr\/id137886027?mt=2&amp;ls=1#episodeGuid=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.insidepr.ca%2F%3Fp%3D2876\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_itunes\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe on Apple Podcasts\" rel=\"nofollow\">Apple Podcasts<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/feed\/podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p><p>[display_podcast]<\/p>\n<p>Recently the New York attorney general&#8217;s office conducted a year-long sting to find people who are posting fake reviews online in exchange for money.<\/p>\n<p>What they found is there were 19 companies paying anywhere from $1 to $10 per positive review posted. They fined the organizations a combined $350,000 for the unethical work.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Lasky, an attorney who specializes in PR firms, wrote about the undercover operation and provided<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dglaw.com\/images_user\/newsalerts\/Lasky_092713.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"> four lessons for PR professionals<\/a>, in a recent\u00a0<em>PR Week<\/em> column.<\/p>\n<p>The warning is clear: While the sting only looked at SEO firms, PR could be next.<\/p>\n<p>So what does it mean for PR firms?<\/p>\n<p>We already know Wikipedia is adamant <a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/fdc\/welcome_mjx.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">against PR professionals posting anything<\/a> in there on behalf of their clients, unless it&#8217;s clearly disclosed. And, ProPublica just came out against the\u00a0<em>New York Times<\/em> for <a href=\"http:\/\/spinsucks.com\/communication\/ketchum-and-the-putin-oped-create-disclosure-in-media-relations-debate\/\" target=\"_blank\">not disclosing who helped them with the President Putin editorial<\/a> (hint: It was Ketchum).<\/p>\n<p>So where is the line?<\/p>\n<p>We know what is black (fake reviews, astroturfing, whisper campaigns) and we know what is white (honesty, transparency, disclosure). But what about the grey?<\/p>\n<p>Say you work for a multi-national company that has offices around the globe. You write a blog post and ask your colleagues to share it on their social networks.<\/p>\n<p>Is that ethical?<\/p>\n<p>Or you have clients who produce content and you ask your team to comment on it and share it.<\/p>\n<p>Is that ethical?<\/p>\n<p>Is it realistic to expect the\u00a0<em>New York Times<\/em> or the BBC to disclose the PR firms they worked with on the stories that had some outside influence?<\/p>\n<p>This week&#8217;s episode covers these issues and how to tow the grey line.<\/p>\n<p>********************************************************************<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;d love to hear your thoughts.<\/p>\n<p>Send us an email or an audio comment to\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:insideprcomments@gmail.com\">insideprcomments@gmail.com<\/a>, join the\u00a0<a title=\"Inside PR Community on Google+\" href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/u\/0\/communities\/107220947721041165633\" target=\"_blank\">Inside PR Google+ Community<\/a>, join the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/group.php?gid=101489863251163\" target=\"_blank\">Inside PR Facebook<\/a>\u00a0group, leave us a comment here, message us\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/inside_pr\">@inside_pr<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter, or connect with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/ginidietrich\" target=\"_blank\">Gini Dietrich<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/thornley\" target=\"_blank\">Joseph Thornley<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/martinwaxman\">Martin Waxman<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>Our theme music was created by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fortheloveofrecords.com\/\">Damon de Szegheo<\/a>;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rogerdey.com\/\">Roger Dey<\/a>\u00a0is our announcer.<\/p>\n<p>Inside PR is produced by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KristineDarbell\" target=\"_blank\">Kristine D&#8217;Arbelles<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a title=\"Ashlea LeCompte on Twitter\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/ashlealecompte\">Ashlea LeCompte<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[display_podcast] Recently the New York attorney general&#8217;s office conducted a year-long sting to find people who are posting fake reviews online in exchange for money. What they found is there were 19 companies paying anywhere &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[781,779,776,778,468,777,780,782],"class_list":["post-2876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pr","tag-astroturfing","tag-fake-reviews","tag-ketchum","tag-michael-lasky","tag-new-york-times","tag-president-putin","tag-propublica","tag-whisper-campaigns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2876\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}