Hi Professor Reagle,
QIC Log: <https://hackmd.io/vaEuPma6QwKhrSjaY-7C0Q?both#Manipulated>
Markdown:
## Manipulated
**Q:** I wonder if there are things that I bought/consumed because of positive reviews that I ended up enjoying but that I may have otherwise not been as fond of had I not seen all of the positive reviews. There are definitely books I’ve read and really *wanted* to enjoy because the reviews were overwhelmingly positive (and, according to the readings, potentially fake), but I do think I’m fairly independent in my tastes and don’t typically find myself liking things just because they’re popular.
**I:** I think it’ll be interesting to see how the FTC’s fake-review rules pan out in terms of actual results, because it seems difficult (to me, at least) to accurately and effectively analyze and flag every fabricated review on the internet. The article says that the rules are useful in court, but don’t have actual enforcement power.
**C:** I’ve actually participated in manipulating reviews before. A friend of mine’s evil, awful ex had a podcast and one night a bunch of us were hanging out and all decided to leave 1-star reviews for the podcast on Spotify. The podcast didn’t really have any listeners anyway, so their rating went from 5 stars to 3.
Dear Professor Reagle,
I hope you are doing well. Here is my QIC for November 9.
HackMD Link: https://hackmd.io/@andrescruz/rkdfI1AKfl
November 9, 2026: Manipulated
Question: How do people know if online reviews are reliable if companies and individuals can manipulate them?
Insight: People are influenced by online reviews, but some of them could be fake and manipulated to make the product more or less attractive to buyers.
Connection: It has something in common with our discussions about misinformation and disinformation because fake reviews can manipulate people’s decisions.
Thank you.
Best regards,
Andres Cruz
Get Outlook for iOS
Homepage: < https://hackmd.io/CJ3xwfYvQIyN7dXyhoUKLw>
QIC Log: <https://hackmd.io/GgAgGgZaTICWW0lumXyT2g >
Markdown
Nov 09 Mon- Manipulated
Q What is the relationship between information asymmetry and online reviews?
I Negative rewviers can make a potential customer question a product purchase even if there are more positive ones.
C Reminds me of how a lot of influencers promote products because of incentives despite having a completely different experience with the product, creating a not so reliable review for potential customers.
Q: How can you tell if online reviews are real or fake?
I: I think some companies use fake reviewss to make themselves look better.
C: Geoffrey Fowler’s article explains how fake news can trick people
https://hackmd.io/@curlyoninsulin/Sy-P_GJqze
Q: Why does it feel like people we know give us better recommendations than strangers, celebrities, or companies?
I: Social media is extremely good at tailoring advertisements to its users. If ordinary online activity, such as liking a post, can function as an advertisement, how is it possible to avoid being manipulated in every nook of the internet?
C: When I see someone I know interacting with a post, I’m almost always more likely to feel strongly about it, whether in a negative or positive way. Reagle’s discussion of advertisements from people we know may make me hesitate before forming an opinion on content I see online.
QIC Log: https://hackmd.io/@tahliajatwani/B1q7lHVFfl
Markdown:
## Nov 07 Monday
**Q**: What are ways in which consumers have an ‘easy tell’ as to which reviews may be fake or manipulated, and how are they able to flag these reviews as fake to prevent further damage?
**I**: Examples in Reagle’s article prove that there has been a significant decline in authentic reviews and consumers now have ulterior motives when posting their opinions. When these platforms are so easily manipulated, it is hard to see the red flags when there are so many occurrences of them.
**C**: This connects to my experience with Amazon, as I constantly rely on reviews rather than product descriptions. As soon as I see that something is rated extremely high, I automatically add it to my cart and even buy it, trusting that the 5-star rating is authentic even though I am already aware that a lot of reviews are fake.
–
Best regards,
Tahlia Jatwani
Northeastern University
Communication Studies, Minor in Public Relations | Class of 2027
jatwani.ta@northeastern.edu
www.linkedin.com/in/tahliajatwani
Homepage: https://hackmd.io/@sophiekabeli/H1jGEqVKMx
QIC: https://hackmd.io/@sophiekabeli/BJlCts4tzx
Markdown
**Q**: The FTC says it’s okay to give a gift card for leaving a review no matter the opinion. With the Reagle article talking about the crowd out theory, how does a reward change what the reviewer writes when there’s no demand?
**I**: The FTC article talks about the “bright red lines” but Reagle’s examples with the Amazon Fire case and Prukiss’s pseudonym review fall in the grey area between authentic and fake. It really is less of a bright line and more of an attempt to manage that grey area.
**C**: I have never left an Amazon review before but have reviewed many books given to me before their release date. With that context, I couldn’t believe people would leave fake reviews to damage the reputation of another and the work they put out.
Sophie Kabeli she/her
B.A in Public Relations
Northeastern University, Class of 2029
Home Page:<https://hackmd.io/oJGdONDOSUyKKDgicloNmQ>
QIC Log:<https://hackmd.io/L0Xh_mZsRxaNhuMsmSWI0Q?both>
Markdown:
### Nov 9 Mon
**Q**: If consumers are eventually no longer able to distinguish authenticity online, how might this impact trust within our society over time?
**I**: As people increasingly rely on online platforms to evaluate credibility, they may start prioritizing opinions and ratings online over personal recommendations based on firsthand experiences from real people. Over time, this will shift how individuals establish trust and make decisions, even when direct human interaction might provide more reliable information.
**C**: I can connect this concept of relying on ratings and reviews online to my own life when I am choosing which movie I want to go see. I often find myself googling or looking at reviews on Rotten Tomatoes to determine whether a movie is going to be “good” or not. Rather than forming my own opinion after actually seeing the movie myself, I sometimes allow the ratings of strangers online to influence whether I will consider even watching the movie.
Nov 8 - Manipluated
Q: If companies can buy fake 5 star reviews to boost ratings, shouldn’t places like Amazon and Google be held responsible when consumers buy misleading products based on reviews?
I: One thing I found intresting was how fake reviews can influence consumers even when they aren’t directly reading them. A business with a bunch of fake reviews can still appear higher in search results then honest compaines. This made me realize that fake reviews do more than mislead consumers, but also give dishnoest businesses an unfair advantage over honest competitors.
C: I worked at Sharkninja, specifically on the Brand Marketing team. One of my tasks was to go onto our website and twist comments. Meaning if a product was getting a lot of bad reviews, we would combine the content with a SKU that always does good so it can bring up the ratings. It shows how companies can influence consumers’ perceptions without necessarily creating fake reviews.
Link to my QIC Log: https://hackmd.io/@jiamittal/SJ7buT4Yfe
Markdown:
### Nov 09 Mon - Manipulated
**Q**: Reagle quotes Liu in his article, saying, “about one-third of all consumer reviews on the Internet are fake.” If so, why even have the option to leave a review if it is only used for others’ selfish gain?
**I**: Reagle mentions that “Galileo, like many authors who have written pseudonymously, was not trying to deceive” — this feels contradictory to the idea that a fake review is generally manipulative and deceptive, whether or not the person writing has good or bad intentions.
**C**: The two articles I read were really interesting. I rely on online reviews for online shopping and even sites like Rate My Professor to decide which classes I want to take, and as naive as it sounds, I had never really considered that the reviews could be fake.
https://hackmd.io/@oliver-mak/rkx2c1Btzg
### Nov 9 Mon
**Q**: If sites are continuing to make profits from all of this manipulation, is there really any incentive to stop being manipulative?
**I**: The daycare introducing the fine actually made people show up late more often, causing a reverse effect and actually making the problem worse. There was no incentive to keep people coming early or on time.
**C**: I feel this incentive-free idea is applicable to my time spent playing Geoguessr. If there is no daily reward or perks to having my account, why should I keep my account in the first place?
Homepage<https://hackmd.io/@d2dannee/HyJkQjHKGe>
QIC<https://hackmd.io/@d2dannee/HkQ1ioSYzx>
Markdown:
Q: Reagle cites Stratgen: “when a measure becomes a target it ceases to be good measure.” So if the FTC’s rule penalizes fake reviews from writers and buyers but not the platforms that profit from hosting reviews, can this really fix the measure? (Reagle, 2015; Fowler, 2023)
I: The platform’s core design is the problem, not a loophole. Yelp, Google, and Amazon control which reviews stay up and profit from them, yet Section 230 shields them. So the platform with the most power has the least liability. (Fowler, 2023)
C: Reagle’s idea of crowding-out connects to the FTC rule still allowing gift cards for real customers’ reviews. The rule deals with fake vs. real, but crowding-out suggests incentives make even real reviews less authentic. (Reagle, 2015; Fowler, 2023)
QIC Page: https://hackmd.io/@Rileyweinberger/H1rH_nrYGg
## Nov 09 Mon - Ads & Social Graph Background
Q: Stokes says ad servers drop a cookie when an ad is just shown, not only when you click it, to count “view-through” conversions. If I buy something days later, how can they clain the ad made me buy it, when maybe I was going to buy it anyway?
I: Vox’s video explains that cookies started as a site’s short-term memory, so your shopping cart would remember what you’d added. Stoke’s main remarketing example is an ad chasing you over an abandoned cart. So the same tool that was built to help you is now used to follow you. The word “privacy” never appears in the Stoked chapter. It only ranks ads by how intrusive” (annoying) they are, not by how much they watch you.
C: The video says lots of companies make money from tracking us, which is why every site has a cookie pop-up that I just click “accept” on. This connects to my essay on beauty filters. If I stop on one skincare post because I feel insecure about my skin and it is persuading me to buy it, I’ll probably keep gettinf asa like that for weeks.
Manipulated QIC: <https://hackmd.io/WDJCaHycSkifKRVBIzs3rg#Nov-9-Mon---Manipulated>
### Nov 9 Mon - Manipulated
**Q**: From Reagle’s chapter I understand that CAPTCHAs were created to prevent people from making bot accounts to post multiple reviews, but how does CAPTCHA work in a different setting like logging onto my favorite clothing store’s website? What’s the significance there?
**I**: I believe that incentivized reviews aren’t always bad, as a lot of people have good things to say they are just lazy to go in and make a review. However, companies like Yelp have recently implemented a feature to help with paid reviews where it will disclose if a restaurant has been using incentives to drive positive reviews. This helps people be more cautious when trusting reviews.
**C**: I know for me, I am constantly searching through Yelp and Beli to get authentic reviews on food, as I find it more helpful than trusting the restaurant. When I get approached to put out an incentivized review, I will likely do the most minimal effort to get the free item they are giving. Therefore, looking at longer more in-depth reviews are still helpful.
Karena Yau
Candidate for B.S. of Business Administration and Communication Studies at Northeastern University | Class of 2029
COMM1255.01 2026-FA