DSH Perspective
Review platforms such as Trustpilot and TripAdvisor claim to foster transparency and trust. In reality, their business models often produce the opposite: fake and manipulated reviews, arbitrary removals of authentic feedback, and premium services that monetize reputational risk. This project reframes these practices as a case of digital unsustainability, where engagement-driven incentives generate digital pollution and undermine both businesses and consumers.
Research Leads
DSH Team
Objectives
Document harmful practices (fake reviews, arbitrary removals, “pay-to-defend” mechanisms).
Quantify the economic and reputational damage to businesses, especially SMEs.
Assess consumer trust and decision quality in polluted review environments.
Develop a Reputation Sustainability Index (RSI) as a benchmark for evaluating platforms.
Provide policy and design recommendations for more sustainable reputation systems.
Context and Relevance
Online reputation is a critical resource in the digital economy. Yet when platforms optimize for volume and monetization rather than authenticity and fairness, they externalize costs onto businesses and consumers. Instead of building trust, these systems erode it, creating an unsustainable ecosystem of contested, low-quality content.
Methodology
Policy audit of moderation rules, dispute processes, and business plan models across platforms.
Case studies documenting real-world business harms caused by fake or manipulated reviews.
Survey and experiments with consumers and SMEs to measure trust, perceived fairness, and purchasing behavior.
Data sampling from platforms to measure: review velocity, removal/appeal rates, verified-purchase ratios.
RSI design: a multi-dimensional index evaluating platforms across transparency, authenticity, fairness, governance, and impact.
Expected Results / Outputs
A taxonomy of unsustainable practices in review platforms.
Empirical evidence of reputational harm and misaligned incentives.
The Reputation Sustainability Index (RSI) with open methodology for replication.
A toolkit for SMEs to defend and document reputational challenges.
A policy brief with concrete recommendations for regulators and industry bodies.