Social media spitefulness

Murrisk

My friend owns a chocolate shop stateside and she was telling me today that she is getting a rash of negative reviews on her shop's Facebook page and Yelp profile from the family of a teenager she didn't hire. Bascially she couldn't hire the girl because the girl is a member of a sports team whose practices clash with the shift she'd have had to work. The girl was persistent, kept ringing the shop. So the rejected walked into the shop today and overheard my friend telling one of her employees about the conversations she'd had with the girl and this is what set the girl's family off. My friend totally agreed she was stupid to be discussing the candidate in the shop and she profusely apologised. Was that really a big enough mistake for her business to be badmouthed on social media? And the parent should be teaching her child of how to deal with rejection better not being seen to back her up for not being hired.

Another case I read about recently was where Harry Styles of One Direction started dating a girl who wrote some sort of health and fitness book. The day the news came out, apparently the Amazon entry for her book was inundated with one star reviews from crazed Styles fans. I had a look myself and, yes indeed, it was very clearly what happened. There is a clear line between a normal mix of reviews and a sudden onslaught of one stars.

I am deeply uncomfortable with this kind of thing. Don't people understand that this kind of spitefulness can damage people's livelihoods? Just because they have been slighted in a minor way. I think the Harry Styles case is the most egregious because that woman didn't even make any kind of mistake that might deserve that treatment. It's sort of vigilantism to round people up to badmouth someone. I've actually seen numerous instances of this on social media. I've seen people post photos of people who have allegedly done something criminal, I've seen people who've had a bad experience at a restaurant telling people to share their story etc.etc. There's a whiff of the pitchfork mob mentality about it.

Has anyone else seen any examples of this on social media? And do you think it's fair enough?

nullzero

I thought the primary function of social media was to provide a platform for ar5eholes to let their juices flow, so to speak.

Murrisk

nullzero wrote: »

I thought the primary function of social media was to provide a platform for ar5eholes to let their juices flow, so to speak.

Well, I like social media a lot generally so I wouldn't really agree. It has good and bad like anything.

And weirdly, most people I know who say how much they hate social media still keep social media profiles.

One eyed Jack

Murrisk wrote: »

Has anyone else seen any examples of this on social media? And do you think it's fair enough?

I've seen plenty of examples of it and I don't think it's ever fair. What's worse though is people giving those who spread these kinds of spiteful stories, any attention.

nullzero

Murrisk wrote: »

Well, I like social media a lot generally so I wouldn't really agree. It has good and bad like anything.

And weirdly, most people I know who say how much they hate social media still keep social media profiles.

I don't have any myself.
Boards is about the size of my online presence.

Ash.J.Williams

There was a great Southpark episode about yelp reviewers thinking they're important... Twas bang on

nullzero

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

There was a great Southpark episode about yelp reviewers thinking they're important... Twas bang on

Boogers and cum, brilliant tune.

Murrisk

One eyed Jack wrote: »

I've seen plenty of examples of it and I don't think it's ever fair. What's worse though is people giving those who spread these kinds of spiteful stories, any attention.

Well, this was inspired by my friend's story and her name isn't given here.

I'm starting a discussion.

freshpopcorn

I'm always very cautious of reviews on Google on or Facebook.

Ash.J.Williams

nullzero wrote: »

Boogers and cum, brilliant tune.

Had to look it up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDlR_ccnZww

El Weirdo

nullzero wrote: »

I thought the primary function of social media was to provide a platform for ar5eholes to let their juices flow, so to speak.

Ah, I see you've read the Tommy Robinson thread too.

One eyed Jack

Murrisk wrote: »

Well, this was inspired by my friend's story and her name isn't given here.

I'm starting a discussion.

That wasn't directed at you Murrisk, it was a commentary on the kind of people who spread the stories and incite people to want to join in in destroying someone else's livelihood. The Christian bakers for example who were targeted by a small group looking to raise their own profile, and how that went on social media.

I thought their whole "campaign" was incredibly spiteful.

Flojo

People are ar5eholes and until something can be done about that, this will always be a problem. It's pretty rampant to be honest and puts social media companies in a difficult position by attempting to increase transparency and their stance on promoting fairness while also being careful of censoring people's legitimate opinions. This also goes the other way, I've come across countless businesses with blatantly fake reviews. Some sites threaten to track IP addresses as a way of counteracting the problem. But it's clearly not enough.

RoisinClare6

Another example of the man who's picture was used to be shared around to notify he was a paedophile. He tormented by mobs of people and had to be protected by the guards. My mother's friends and a few elderly people I know just share these kind of posts without looking into it, seeing if it is correct information etc they don't think of the ramifications they think they are being helpful, that poor mans life must be in tatters, that's online forever.

Same with people sharing posts about restaurants and other businesses you just don't know if they are factual and people just share it anyway.

I just wish people would cop onto themselves

Grandeeod

Facebook in particular is pretty lawless. The whole "name and shame" mentality has spread across that platform. It doesn't matter about actual facts. It's now just a case of say what you want and encourage all and sundry to like and share. I know for a fact of small businesses that have folded as a result of the facebook mob mentality. It's just a real pity that they have never decided to talk about it in the legally accountable media. That said the legally accountable media seem to think it's ethical to source stories from the likes of FB and Twitter.

It's fooking poisonous.

Senna

Same with all online review platforms for services and business, product reviews are slightly better.
TripAdvisor is one of the worst, a perfect example was this week when I was looking for hotel recommendations for a holiday, one person had left a 1 star review and after reading it, the person had got mugged in the resort, nowhere near the hotel, and that was why they left a 1 star review for the hotel. People are idiots.

jimmycrackcorm

Murrisk wrote:

Well, this was inspired by my friend's story and her name isn't given here.

You'll need to give her name just to allow the whole boards community also give negative reviews. Just because.

Murrisk

Senna wrote: »

Same with all online review platforms for services and business, product reviews are slightly better.
TripAdvisor is one of the worst, a perfect example was this week when I was looking for hotel recommendations for a holiday, one person had left a 1 star review and after reading it, the person had got mugged in the resort, nowhere near the hotel, and that was why they left a 1 star review for the hotel. People are idiots.

I actually find Tripadvisor really good overall. The stupid or spiteful reviews are pretty easy to spot. Most people who are members do a mix of reviews. I have something like 15 reviews written, ranging from 5 stars to 2 stars.

LirW

Yelp is like a swap of miserable people. Every one star Yelp review ever results out of something like this or people that are like "Didn't like the food in this Chinese place place because I don't enjoy Chinese food and they refused to serve me pizza".
Facebook reviews are pretty much the same really. Couldn't give a toss. I'm sorry for your friend, because I know that with Yelp exactly this creates a huge percentage of their customer service problems (had an interview at Yelp and we discussed this).

Sleeper12

I'm a tradesman & my Business has a Facebook page. It's not really the type of business that gets a lot of Facebook visitors but we had about 15 reviews. All 5 star. it took 3 years for us to get 15 reviews. Then one day I got 30 one star review in less than an hour.
All of the 30 were Facebook friends of each other. I had done work for none of them. Facebook didn't see anything unusual in this & refused to remove them. The only thing I could do was to disable reviews altogether. So now I have no reviews, good or bad.
I no longer look at one star reviews at all. I now only pay attention to three, four and five star reviews. Most 1 star reviews are not an accurate portrait of a business imo

Sleeper12

RoisinClare6 wrote:

Another example of the man who's picture was used to be shared around to notify he was a paedophile. He tormented by mobs of people and had to be protected by the guards. My mother's friends and a few elderly people I know just share these kind of posts without looking into it, seeing if it is correct information etc they don't think of the ramifications they think they are being helpful, that poor mans life must be in tatters, that's online forever.

Totally agree. I've never shared photos like this online. You just don't know if it is true or someone causing trouble for someone else. Labeling someone a pedophile is probably the worst thing to do to someone. Years later people still think there's no smoke without fire

AllForIt

I think the issue is if one puts one business up on social media one can't expect it's going to be all positive. The whole idea of having a Facebook business page is to promote one's business ie advertising. If one feels that the negative feedback is unfair and untrue then it is equally plausible that the positive feedback is also untrue. Advertising on Facebook is a really cheap form of advertising and if one isn't open to criticism then I think they shouldn't run the risk of negative comments at all, in other words, dump your facebook page. Especially if one makes cake and would rather some customers would not eat it.

Murrisk

AllForIt wrote: »

I think the issue is if one puts one business up on social media one can't expect it's going to be all positive. The whole idea of having a Facebook business page is to promote one's business ie advertising. If one feels that the negative feedback is unfair and untrue then it is equally plausible that the positive feedback is also untrue. Advertising on Facebook is a really cheap form of advertising and if one isn't open to criticism then I think they shouldn't run the risk of negative comments at all, in other words, dump your facebook page. Especially if one makes cake and would rather some customers would not eat it.

I think any business is open to criticism as long as it's proportionate and reasonable. Yelp does take down bad reviews, indeed the one put up against my friend's business might well be yet. It just reads as airing dirty laundry publically.

leggo

The only thing your friend can really do OP is turn off reviews on their page (which should take away the star ratings if I'm not mistaken) and take their business off Yelp. With Facebook, people only really look at what's presented to them, so if they don't see ratings they won't look or think much of it, by and large. With Yelp it's a case of weighing things up and deciding if the damage poor reviews yield outweighs the positives. Then they can go back to both in six months when this has all blown over.

Grandeeod

Is there a blase attitude to the absolute and uncontrollable damage that FB can do to a person or small business? First it was fooking Liveline with its one sided moany hole BS and now its FB with its free for all BS that is a source for fooking Liveline! Social Media spitefulness has resulted in defamation, suicide and the ruination of lives, because there is no control. Boards.ie is a perfetct example of how it should be. No free speech.

Tigger

One eyed Jack wrote: »

That wasn't directed at you Murrisk, it was a commentary on the kind of people who spread the stories and incite people to want to join in in destroying someone else's livelihood. The Christian bakers for example who were targeted by a small group looking to raise their own profile, and how that went on social media.

I thought their whole "campaign" was incredibly spiteful.

The Christian bakers are homophobes
They should just make the ****ing cake and cop on

Grandeeod

Tigger wrote: »

The Christian bakers are homophobes
They should just make the ****ing cake and cop on

They are entitled to their opinions and shouldn't be rediculed on social media for it. This is the point that you and millions of others don't get and thats because you and millions of others think you can row in behind an issue and shoot your gobs off on social media. Wannabe journo's. Wannabe contributors and wannabe "influencers". All full of **** and opinions, thinking your **** and opinions matter. They don't, because you aren't perfect either.

Tigger

Grandeeod wrote: »

They are entitled to their opinions and shouldn't be rediculed on social media for it. This is the point that you and millions of others don't get and thats because you and millions of others think you can row in behind an issue and shoot your gobs off on social media. Wannabe journo's. Wannabe contributors and wannabe "influencers". All full of **** and opinions, thinking your **** and opinions matter. They don't, because you aren't perfect either.

I think they are entitled to be homophobic but if they don't wanna get hassle they should have made the cake
It's a business not at endeavour

Tigger

Grandeeod wrote: »

They are entitled to their opinions and shouldn't be rediculed on social media for it. This is the point that you and millions of others don't get and thats because you and millions of others think you can row in behind an issue and shoot your gobs off on social media. Wannabe journo's. Wannabe contributors and wannabe "influencers". All full of **** and opinions, thinking your **** and opinions matter. They don't, because you aren't perfect either.

Lol at me and the millions of others that are "Wrong"

Irish Guitarist

That ball for teenagers a few months ago springs to mind. They posted something on Facebook telling girls not to wear skimpy dresses which seemed fair enough given it was supposed to be a ball and not a disco. Dozens of spoiled self-obsessed girls posted nonsense on their page about feminism and 'slut shaming'. When I was a teenager if I wasn't allowed in somewhere because of my clothes I would have just went home rather than acting like it was a violation of my human rights.

One eyed Jack

Tigger wrote: »

I think they are entitled to be homophobic but if they don't wanna get hassle they should have made the cake
It's a business not at endeavour

If the representatives of the organisation had actually wanted a cake made in the first place, then a Christian bakery hardly seems like the most obvious place to make an order, unless what they actually wanted was a social media shìt-storm and a ton of publicity for their own cause. The unexpected aftermath of course was the social media mob taking matters into their own hands and actively trying to have the business shut down.

The same spiteful fcukers tried to get a printing business closed down too, and then they wonder why people detest them and don't want to have any dealings with them? It's bloody obvious why - because they can mobilise a social media mob in minutes to try and destroy the reputation of any business, or make their lives hell in the process.

Thankfully most people aren't so stupid as some people need them to be.

Grandeeod

Tigger wrote: »

I think they are entitled to be homophobic but if they don't wanna get hassle they should have made the cake
It's a business not at endeavour

It is a business and they made a decision based on their business. So what? And who are you to decide if they are homophopic anyway.

Tigger wrote: »

Lol at me and the millions of others that are "Wrong"

Who said you were wrong? Perhaps you are just being a pedantic idiot? Im in my 40s and straight and experienced the gay scene in the very early 1990's via friends. My gay friends of a similar generation and older are actually embarassed by some of the crap that is claimed to be homophobic. Gay people who couldn't care a fook less, have realised that. I reckon its just PC straight people that perpetuate any of this homophobe BS. Being Gay is normal, but having a problem with it is normal too, because all humans have a problem with something.

languagenerd

The Facebook review thing is ridiculous because it's really hard to remove malicious or erroneous reviews - companies can only report them and are reliant on the whims of Facebook's moderation policies. As well, IIRC, you can only report them if there's text (you can't report a 1 star rating as mistaken/malicious unless the person writes why they gave it).

I've worked for a company with a similar name to a business in another country and, despite having "Ireland" in our description, we'd sometimes get bad reviews or low ratings from their angrier customers. Couldn't remove them, even though they were nothing to do with us or our services.

But if anyone can a write a permanent review without having to prove they're a real customer or without having to back up their claims, the system is meaningless - it's too open to abuse from both businesses rating themselves and disgruntled customers/acquaintances with an axe to grind. I could write anything on any company's wall and they can't delete it... Can they even sue for defamation if it was all lies? Would they even be able to track down the poster to bring about proceedings?

diomed

Reading this thread motivated me to Deactivate my Facebook account.

Irish Guitarist

When that sick bastard from Lostprophets was sentenced for child rape hordes of morons did a search for the name Ian Watkins on Twitter so they could play internet warrior with someone who was already in jail. It didn't seem to register with them that there might be more than one Ian Watkins in the world so anyone that was unfortunate enough to share his name got terrible abuse.

The most high profile one was H from Steps. There was another man called Ian Watkins that was campaigning against sex trafficking or something. He seemed decent enough but all of a sudden hundreds of idiots were calling him a paedo and telling him to rot in Hell.

Murrisk

languagenerd wrote: »

Can they even sue for defamation if it was all lies? Would they even be able to track down the poster to bring about proceedings?

I would say that could certainly happen if the person has made up lies about a company. It's libellous. After all, they can screengrab the comment as proof and I'm sure it can be retrieved even if deleted. (maybe someone more techy than me can confirm that?)

hatrickpatrick

I quite enjoy how South Park dealt with people abusing social media reviews to get special treatment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDlR_ccnZww

LadyMacBeth_

With the likes of tripadvisor I usually look at the good reviews first, if there are a lot more of them then I have a quick look at the bad ones, and it's usually something like ''the hotel didn't have any English channels wah wah wah'' or something else equally as stupid so I ignore them.

Ash.J.Williams

One eyed Jack wrote: »

If the representatives of the organisation had actually wanted a cake made in the first place, then a Christian bakery hardly seems like the most obvious place to make an order, unless what they actually wanted was a social media shìt-storm and a ton of publicity for their own cause. The unexpected aftermath of course was the social media mob taking matters into their own hands and actively trying to have the business shut down.

The same spiteful fcukers tried to get a printing business closed down too, and then they wonder why people detest them and don't want to have any dealings with them? It's bloody obvious why - because they can mobilise a social media mob in minutes to try and destroy the reputation of any business, or make their lives hell in the process.

Thankfully most people aren't so stupid as some people need them to be.

You're in the cake business.... Bake the fkn cake

Samaris

My friends quickly learned not to send me the "spread this information" posts, as I got into the (probably very annoying) habit of fact-checking them, correcting them, and sending them back.

It was impressive how quickly the flow stopped. I reccommend this approach if you don't mind losing some friends (:P), limit one avenue for bullsh*t and get the real story out, no matter if it never gets beyond the one person that ate up the original nonsense.

languagenerd

Murrisk wrote: »

languagenerd wrote: »

Can they even sue for defamation if it was all lies? Would they even be able to track down the poster to bring about proceedings?

I would say that could certainly happen if the person has made up lies about a company. It's libellous. After all, they can screengrab the comment as proof and I'm sure it can be retrieved even if deleted. (maybe someone more techy than me can confirm that?)

Oh it definitely meets the legal definition of libel, but how do they track the person down if they don't know them in real life? You can't bring a case without the person's real name and address. I doubt the guards have time to dig for info on what is essentially a civil case and if Facebook don't accept that it's a lie in the first place...

Murrisk

LadyMacBeth_ wrote: »

With the likes of tripadvisor I usually look at the good reviews first, if there are a lot more of them then I have a quick look at the bad ones, and it's usually something like ''the hotel didn't have any English channels wah wah wah'' or something else equally as stupid so I ignore them.

I always inwardly groan when I see a Tripadvisor review accompanied by photos of the corners of rooms or under beds or of refuse sacks. You just know it's going to be some nitpicky loser. I've had bad accommodation before but surely these people should just make the best of it rather than documenting the crapness of the property?

Murrisk

Samaris wrote: »

My friends quickly learned not to send me the "spread this information" posts, as I got into the (probably very annoying) habit of fact-checking them, correcting them, and sending them back.

It was impressive how quickly the flow stopped. I reccommend this approach if you don't mind losing some friends (:P), limit one avenue for bullsh*t and get the real story out, no matter if it never gets beyond the one person that ate up the original nonsense.

I like this. Very proactive!

andekwarhola

You tend to get a feel for certain bad reviews.

If I'm going away with my wife or family, I'll get a decent enough hotel but for a lads or football trip, I generally get a cheap one because you're staying out late and getting up early.

When looking at reviews for the latter type of hotel, you can almost predict a rash of negative reviews from people that book the hotel because it's cheap but are then appalled because it's, you know, a cheapo hotel.

Solomon Pleasant

I believe that social media overtook porn as the number one activity on the web a number of years ago.

I though at the time that this was a good thing, I'm really not sure now.

Murrisk

andekwarhola wrote: »

You tend to get a feel for certain bad reviews.

If I'm going away with my wife or family, I'll get a decent enough hotel but for a lads or football trip, I generally get a cheap one because you're staying out late and getting up early.

When looking at reviews for the latter type of hotel, you can almost predict a rash of negative reviews from people that book the hotel because it's cheap but are then appalled because it's, you know, a cheapo hotel.

Exactly. A favourite of these whiners, I've noticed, is taking photos of chips gone out of furniture. Well yes, you paid €30 for that room, what do you expect? Plus it makes me feel so depressed to think of someone on holiday, in a new place, taking photos of their hotel room.

And then the thicks marking down a property for extraneous reasons such as bad weather.

These types of review are, as you say, very easy to spot.

koumi

sociopaths

Grandeeod

An anti social media thread on Boards.ie, barely making it past 4 pages, really sums things up. I guess the majority cannot accept or really defend the criticism, because its a part of their lives that they can't comprehend doing without.

B.A._Baracus

Honestly, and i wish this wasn't the case, but there is a lot of as$holes in this world and social media just proves it. As another said it gives an as$hole a platform to be an as$hole.

People don't care if what they post effects someone else.

Sleeper12

B.A._Baracus wrote:

Honestly, and i wish this wasn't the case, but there is a lot of as$holes in this world and social media just proves it. As another said it gives an as$hole a platform to be an as$hole.

Totally agree with you but to keep yourself sane you need to remind yourself that there are some very genuine people online too

Samaris

There's a lot good about the internet, but there's also huge problems with it that no-one really saw coming. In retrospect, they look obvious (although there's still a certain elitist issue with approaching said problem). How is the spread of totally made up information aimed at having real life consequences to be dealt with? Can it be? Is that going against a certain central tenet of the internet which is everyone gets to have their say (even if they insist on talking total rubbish).

How is disconnection from the reality of day to day interaction with other people to be dealt with? What about the problem of teenagers becoming too socially savvy in terms of the internet while having their actual social interaction blunted in daily life? Especially teenagers and young kids who are being brought up far too much online and without developing their social skills towards human interaction in person - which is not fully replaced by the internet. No face to face contact, no learning how to read body language, etc. And that's before we get to the poisonous atmosphere of many online talking places, the echo chambers, the normalisation of brainless drivel and nasty brainless drivel at that at times. And the downright lies.

Social media spitefulness is just one facet of the whole issue, imo. The internet leads to the same sort of dulling of the sort of empathy gained from social interaction and learning how to read and understand other people as sociopathy does, albeit on different scales. That is rather alarming when you think of those being brought up on it far more than the majority of us were.