CMA Puts Pressure on Fake Gambling Ads and Reviews on Social Media

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the United Kingdom launched an investigation into several prominent social media websites that display online adverts and reviews on their platforms. The effort sought to ensure that the respective companies had sufficient interventions in place to protect their consumers from fake or misleading adverts and reviews.

The regulator flagged Facebook, Instagram, and eBay in May 2020, identifying them as problem sites that needed to act to irradicate the high volume of fake gambling advertising and misleading reviews on their platforms.

After agreeing to take initial action, a follow-up inspection in 2021 reveals that Facebook (which owns Instagram too) has not done enough to solve the issues posed and remains a thriving environment for these kinds of scams.

This is extremely dangerous for the high volumes of people that frequent these sites. Many of them cannot discern between legitimate and fake reviews and adverts and are therefore easy targets of manipulation and even fraud.

The CEO of CMA, Andrea Coscelli, had this to say:

Facebook has a duty to do all it can to stop the trading of such content on its platforms. After we intervened again, the company made significant changes – but it is disappointing it has taken them over a year to fix these issues. We will continue to keep a close eye on Facebook, including its Instagram business. Should we find it is failing to honour its commitments, we will not hesitate to take further action.

The CMA has made clear that it is vital to keep the online space more protected than ever, as far more people both shop and research products and services online now. People need to be able to trust the platforms they frequent so that they can shop in confidence.

 Facebook’s Response

Facebook was compliant with the initial investigation of the CMA in 2020 and acted swiftly, deleting 16,000 groups dealing with misleading reviews and changed certain protocols on their systems to better identify, prevent, and remove such issues in the future.

The latest review of the company’s progress leaves the regulator disappointed yet again, however, the social media giant has pledged to up its game in combatting this issue by:

• Suspending and banning repeat offenders who misuse the platform.
• Introducing new automated processes to improve the detection and removal of such content.
• Making it harder for the public to find fake and misleading review groups in the search bar.
• Installing processes dedicated to preventing these issues from reoccurring.

These new protocols are already in process on both Facebook and Instagram platforms in a bid to fix the issue and avoid any further action from the CMA in this regard.

 Round-Up

Facebook has had a hard time of late and seems to be struggling on the security front. The US government fined the company $5 billion in 2019 for its inability to protect individuals’ privacy and now the UK is on the verge of similar action if the platform cannot show that it can keep its consumers safe from unscrupulous scammers.

Fake online gambling reviews and marketing have been present among the barrage of other adverts and scams on the platforms. To stay safe on this front, you should use legitimate online gambling marketing sites, like GamblersPick, when looking for the best deals.

Our player base provides our review content, which means that you have access to the legitimate opinions of the masses when choosing which sites are best to play at and which deals are the best for you.