--- title: "The AI-Generated Product Reviews Choking the Internet Are Now Illegal" description: "New FTC guidelines went into effect this week, officially rendering it illegal to publish fake, misleading, and AI-generated product reviews." date: "2024-10-22" modified: "2024-10-22" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/illegal-fake-reviews-ai" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai" - "ai-generated content" - "online reviews" - "the digest" --- # The AI-Generated Product Reviews Choking the Internet Are Now Illegal ![New FTC guidelines went into effect this week, officially rendering it illegal to publish fake, misleading, and AI-generated product reviews.]() *\Image: Kevin Dietsch via Getty\* ## Cleaning Up It's officially illegal to publish fake, AI-generated product reviews. Sweeping changes to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines aimed at cleaning up the [polluted, confusing world of online product reviews]() went into effect on Monday, meaning the federal agency is now allowed to levy civil penalties against bad actors who knowingly post product reviews and testimonials deemed misleading to American consumers. The [new guidelines]() are expansive, prohibiting sleazy businesses from engaging in a wide array of abusive tactics. That list includes using generative AI tools to whip up fake testimonials or product review articles — bonus points if those reviews are attributed to someone who isn't real, or published by someone overstating or misreporting their level of experience with a given product. A perfect example of this kind of content? Review-style articles published at dozens of media companies [including *Sports Illustrated*]() and *The Miami Herald* by a third-party media company called AdVon Commerce, which multiple [*Futurism* investigations]() revealed to be largely AI-generated and even bylined by fake authors outfitted with equally fake profile pictures and bios purporting alleged expertise. The FTC's new regulations address "reviews and testimonials that misrepresent that they are by someone who does not exist, such as AI-generated fake reviews," reads the ruling, "or who did not have actual experience with the business or its products or services, or that misrepresent the experience of the person giving it." ## Buying Stars The FTC's new policies also allow it to go after people or companies that purchase phony positive or negative reviews, buy up social media followers, or use intimidation — groundless legal threats, threatening language, threats of physical violence, and so on — to dissuade consumers from leaving critical ratings. In somewhat muddier waters, the ruling also forbids companies from soliciting "insider" reviews from folks with undisclosed material connections to a product or business. It also makes it illegal for a website to publish review content under the guise of editorial independence, when in fact it's reviewing products that it has some kind of material interest in. One example of that latter abuse would be, say, a tire company operating a tire review website without disclosures. This is also a place where that same media company, AdVon Commerce, might breach the FTC's new guidelines: [as *Futurism* first reported](), AdVon also operates a second company, Seller Rocket, which places pay-to-play products in AdVon-produced product reviews without disclosure to readers. "Fake reviews not only waste people's time and money," FTC Chair Lina Khan [said in a statement]() when the ruling was first announced, "but also pollute the marketplace and divert business away from honest competitors." **More on fake AI product reviews:** [*Meet AdVon, the AI-Powered Content Monster Infecting the Media Industry*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()