Maintaining Trusted Reviews: Getting Started Guide
As consumers increasingly rely on online reviews to evaluate products and services, and businesses use them to understand customer experiences, trustworthy feedback is more important than ever.
Authentic reviews support informed decision-making, stronger business outcomes, and fair competition online. But when reviews are fake or manipulated, they can mislead consumers, undermine platform integrity, and erode trust across the wider digital ecosystem.
Maintaining trusted review systems is therefore not simply a question of content integrity. It is also an important part of the broader trust and safety landscape, helping platforms protect consumers, creating safer, more accountable online environments.
That’s why the Coalition for Trusted Reviews has launched Maintaining Trusted Reviews: Getting Started, a step-by-step guide to help online platforms strengthen review integrity.
Informed by the Coalition’s best practices, the guide is designed as a practical starting point for platforms. It complements any regulations that platforms should comply with but does not constitute legal or regulatory advice.
What the guide covers
The guide sets out five practical steps online platforms can take to strengthen trust in their review systems and protect against review fraud.
Put a clear policy in place and be transparent with users: Platforms should explain who can leave reviews, what is allowed and prohibited, how reviews are collected and displayed, how reviews are moderated or verified, and what happens when policies are violated.
Implement systems to prevent and detect fake reviews: Platforms should develop a multi-step moderation process, underpinned by automated tools and data driven detection.
Enable user reporting: Users should be able to flag suspected fake or manipulated reviews, with reported reviews assessed by human experts.
Combine automated processes with human oversight: Automated systems should be supported by human expertise to review complex cases, investigate reports, audit systems, and reduce false positives.
Take consistent action against violations: Platforms should remove fake reviews promptly, act against repeat offenders, and escalate serious or persistent abuse, to maintain credibility and deter future abuse.
Download the guide
Read the full guide to explore the five practical steps, examples of what an effective reviews policy should include, and questions platforms can use to assess and strengthen their review integrity practices.
