The Times - UK (2022-01-13)

12 Thursday January 13 2022 | the times

News

Hundreds of thousands of people are
trading fake reviews on Facebook and
Twitter, despite promises from the tech
giants that they would crack down on
the problem.
An investigation by the consumer
rights group Which? has found that the
two social media companies are failing
to tackle “fake review factories” on their
platforms, in which people offer free-
bies or money in exchange for positive
reviews of products on Amazon.

Social media plagued by Amazon ‘fake review factories’

Rocio Concha, director of policy at

Which? said the “weak checks” from

Facebook and Twitter to stop fake

review agents on its platforms risked

“seriously undermining consumer trust

in online reviews”.

Facebook has repeatedly made com-

mitments to the UK’s Competition and

Markets Authority (CMA) over the past

two years to clamp down on the fake

review groups on its platform and its

sister app Instagram.

In April Facebook told the CMA it

had removed 16,000 fake review

groups, after being rebuked by the

watchdog for failing to do more to com-

bat the issue. Facebook also said that it

would ban users who were repeatedly

creating groups or profiles to sell fake

reviews and make it harder for people

to find these groups.

However, Which? said that between

June and November last year it found 18

Facebook groups with more than

200,000 members in total who were

taking part in this fraudulent activity.

Researchers said that within minutes

of joining these Facebook groups, they

were offered hundreds of free Amazon

items they could receive in exchange

for giving the products five-star

reviews.

Which? found that fake review issues

are also “rife on Twitter”. They looked

at 30 “review agents” who sent more

than 50,000 product listings that could

be reviewed.

The CMA said it had raised the find-

ings from Which? with Facebook to

ensure the company is “honouring its

commitments” to combat the issue. It

added it would consider the findings on

Twitter to see if further action might be

necessary.

A spokesman for Facebook’s parent

company, Meta, said it had proactively

removed many of the groups identified

by Which? before it approached them,

and had “swiftly” taken down the other

groups. He added that such “fraudulent

and deceptive” activity was not allowed

on the platform.

Twitter said that it did not allow

“spam or other types of platform mani-

pulation” and it had suspended all the

referenced accounts.

An Amazon spokesman said: “Only

when regulators, law enforcement,

social media sites and retailers work to-

gether will these fraudsters be stopped.”

Tom Knowles
Technology Correspondent

Bosses of water companies that regu-
larly breach permits by discharging raw
sewage into rivers and the sea should be
stripped of their annual bonuses, MPs
will recommend in a report today.
The Commons Environmental Audit
Committee will call for an urgent
review of the system by which water
companies self-monitor their sewage
works. It warns that a “chemical
cocktail” of sewage, slurry and plastic is
polluting England’s rivers and putting
public health and nature at risk.
The report calls for much tougher
regulation, saying successive govern-
ments, water companies and regulators
“have grown complacent and seem re-
signed to maintaining pre-Victorian
practices of dumping sewage
in rivers”.
The report notes the
latest Environment
Agency data, which
shows that all riv-
ers and lakes mon-
itored in England
failed tests for
chemical pollu-
tion and 84 per
cent did not meet
the government’s
target of good eco-
logical status.
It says poor river water
quality is the result of
chronic underinvestment by
water companies and multiple failures
in monitoring, governance and
enforcement. “Water companies
appear to be dumping untreated or par-
tially treated sewage in rivers regularly,
often breaching the terms of permits
that only allow this in exceptional cir-
cumstances,” the report adds.
It says most swimmers and other
river users cannot find out when it is
safe to use them because of a lack of
information about sewage discharges.
The revelation in last year’s prosecu-
tion of Southern Water that billions of
litres of sewage were deliberately
dumped into the sea over several years
raised “obvious and urgent questions”
about the system of self-monitoring.
The committee accuses Ofwat, the
regulator, of focusing on keeping bills
down rather than ensuring adequate
investment. The MPs accuse Liv Gar-
field, the chief executive of Severn
Trent, who was paid £2.8 million in
2020, including £1.9 million in bonuses,
of making a “disingenuous” claim in

Sewage set to

eat into water

chiefs’ bonuses

evidence to the committee that storm

overflow discharges were “pretty much

already rainwater”.

The report says discharges can be

highly contaminated with raw sewage

and “to claim otherwise shows a dis-

regard for the public’s concern about

water quality in rivers”. The report

demands “far more assertive regulation

and enforcement from Ofwat and the

Environment Agency to restore our

rivers to their natural glory”.

It calls on Ofwat to examine its pow-

ers “with a view to limiting the awards

of significant annual bonuses to water

company senior executives in the event

of major or persistent breaches in

permit conditions”.

Other recommendations include:

6 The government should set “chal-

lenging improvement targets

and timetables” for reduc-

ing the impact of sew-

age discharges.

6 Ofwat should pri-

oritise long-term

investment in

wastewater when

setting the prices

water companies

can charge.

6 The industry

should provide real-

time, easily access-

ible information on

sewage discharges.

6 At least one popular

stretch of river should be desig-

nated for bathing in each water com-

pany area by 2025 at the latest.

6 A review of sentencing guidelines for

water pollution offences to ensure that

companies act.

6 A ban on wet wipes containing plas-

tic because they cause “fatbergs as big

as blue whales” that block sewers.

Severn Trent said it believed an aver-

age of about 90 per cent of the dis-

charge from its overflows was rain-

water. Water UK, which represents

water companies, said: “Water compa-

nies want to invest more and are push-

ing the government to encourage the

economic regulator, Ofwat, to enable

this increased spending over the next

decade.”

The Environment Agency said

improvements to rivers had “flatlined

over the last ten years” and that water

companies, regulators and farmers

must do more to protect them.

Christine Colvin, of The Rivers Trust,

said the report was a “devasting indict-

ment on the status quo”.

Ben Webster Environment Editor

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Twitter fails

to remove

100 abusive

misogynists

Tom Knowles

More than a hundred Twitter accounts

that had been reported for sending

abuse to high-profile women went on to

post misogynist content again after the

company failed to remove them.

Research has shown that nearly half

of the accounts flagged over graphic

sexist abuse sent to women including

the Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai

and the former US secretary of state

Hillary Clinton went on to repeat the

offence.

The Center for Countering Digital

Hate (CCDH), a non-profit group,

which conducted the research, said

that Twitter’s failure to remove such

accounts was “enabling and encourag-

ing abusers to spew hate again”.

In September last year the group

tracked misogynist abuse on Twitter

towards nine high-profile women. As

well as Clinton and Yousafzai, they

included the actress Thandiwe New-

ton, the palliative care doctor Rachel

Clarke, the American rapper Lizzo,

the former first lady Michelle Obama,

the US vice-president Kamala Harris,

the former Australian prime minister

Julia Gillard and Clinton’s daughter

Chelsea.

After reporting the accounts that

posted abuse to these women, the

CCDH noted that 253 of these accounts

had still not been removed two months

later.

The researchers analysed 235 of

these accounts and found 111 went on

to send more graphic misogynistic

comments.

Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the

CCDH, said: “Twitter’s track record is

abysmal when it comes to protecting

women and girls from abhorrent

misogynist abuse.

“Every time an abuser goes unpun-

ished, they are given permission to

carry on as normal, and even escalate

their attacks... At its sharpest end,

women are being chased out of public

life, which carries a direct threat to our

democracy.”

A Twitter spokeswoman said: “It is

our top priority to keep everyone who

uses Twitter safe and free from abuse.

While we have made recent strides in

giving people greater control to man-

age their safety, we know there is still

work to be done.”

2

Sewage pipe

Storm

overflow

River

How sewage enters rivers

1

1

2

3

3

Sewage Combined

Rainfall and surface water

Household and industrial

sewage is carried to treatment

works along the same pipe

Water from storm drains flows

into the same pipe, which can

become overwhelmed in

heavy rain

When the liquid reaches a

certain height it pours into

an overflow pipe, which

carries it directly into rivers

Liv Garfield, the Severn Trent chief executive, was paid £2.8 million in 2020.

Left: footage of untreated waste flowing into Langstone Harbour in Hampshire

LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES

Researchers

tracked sexist

abuse sent to

Malala Yousafzai’s

Twitter account