So to give a wider context to why this has got me riled up, in the past few months, two of my friends who run small, local businesses have been targeted by people leaving troll reviews. They are both obviously fake/malicious reviews - both my friends have otherwise 4 or 5 reviews on google/tripadvisor etc, and are very well regarded locally, plus the "fake" reviews don't make any sense, talking about products/services they don't sell, for instance, and the users not having any other reviews/information on their profiles.
However, the impact of having these negative and fake reviews published on their google page has really effected them and it's been very stressful..in one case they've had to pursue it legally as the stuff written is libellous (very serious accusations of verbal abuse etc, which is absolutely not in my friends' character at all!).
I therefore feel really shocked today to see two different 'influencers' I currenlty follow, separately asking their very large followings to go and post 'troll reviews' on the business pages of people they don't like?! One of these influencers I follow is themself famous because of the business they started, so surely must appreciate how make or break reviews are, and the other you would hope would know better - it's not like they're a young kid doing something in 'revenge'. Both these influencers are aged mid to late 30s.
Do people not realise how much it effects small business owners to have things like this happen to their business? I just find it completely shocking. Obviously if a business genuinely has done something wrong or bad, you should leave a negative review or tell the truth about what has happened, but actually making things up/encouraging your 'fans' to make stuff up "just because you can" seems obscene to me!
AIBU??