In response to the frequent review bombing on Amazon's book review site 'Goodreads', the management calls for 'users to cooperate in reporting malicious accounts'

Goodreads , a book review site run by Amazon, has been repeatedly criticized for not taking many measures to prevent vandalism from spoofed accounts, and ' review bombing ,' which attacks books and authors, is also a frequent problem. It has become. It was discovered that a writer had repeatedly posted posts that highly praised his own work and defamed other writers, and in response to this, Goodreads announced that ``To protect the credibility of Goodreads ratings and reviews, users can cooperate with each other.'' We have released a statement calling for the same.

Goodreads asks users to help combat 'review bombing' : NPR
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/17/1219599404/goodreads-review-bombing-cait-corrain

Announcements: Working Together to Protect the Authenticity of Ratings and Reviews on Goodreads
https://help.goodreads.com/s/announcements/a038V00000dLkCZQA0/working-together-to-protect-the-authenticity-of-ratings-and-reviews-on-goodreads

The American publisher Del Rey Books, which is part of Penguin Random House, the world's largest publisher, announced on December 13, 2023 that it would stop publishing Kate Collaine's novel CROWN OF STARLIGHT. Announced. Del Rey Books has made it clear that it will not continue its contract with Collaine as well as the book, and the post did not explain why.

Del Rey will no longer publish CROWN OF STARLIGHT by Cait Corrain or any other works on that contract.

— Del Rey Books (@DelReyBooks) December 12, 2023

According to the National Public Radio news site, the reason for the suspension of publication was that Mr. Collaine was ``review bombing'' on Goodreads. This problem was discovered when a volunteer published a Google document summarizing the problems. The document points out that many Goodreads accounts have posted reviews praising 'CROWN OF STARLIGHT,' while at the same time the same accounts have given poor reviews to other authors' works. In particular, there were many reviews that gave low ratings to works written by people of color due to racist content, and this was seen as a problem with ``review bombing,'' which unfairly lowered book ratings.

Mr. Collaine, who was suspected of being involved in the review bombing, defended himself by saying, ``My friend Lilly did this to increase the reputation of my book,'' and released a message exchange in which he questioned Lilly and received repeated apologies. Did.

However, as a result of it being pointed out that the published message was ``spoofed like the review,'' Mr. Colaine admitted that the conversation with his friend Lily was fabricated and that he had bombed the review. In his public apology, Collaine confessed that his actions were due to a 'complete mental breakdown.'

A sincere apology. I know this is long, but that's because I'm trying to own and openly address every aspect of what I did. pic.twitter.com/MEtyDLCkDw

— Cait (@CaitCorrain) December 12, 2023

Goodreads has often been criticized for making little effort to authenticate users, which allows for review bombing. In the past, a large-scale vandalism attack against science fiction novelist Patrick S. Tomlinson was caused by an impersonation account that used Tomlinson's friend's name and photo without permission. Mr. Tomlinson points out that the problem with Goodreads is that ``because email is not verified when registering for an account, it is easy to increase the number of spoofed accounts using existing usernames or other people's email addresses'' and that ``it is easy to create fraudulent accounts. Although it is possible to report bad reviews, there is no way to report the very accounts that are involved in impersonation or vandalism.'

What is the cause of the sudden increase in 'vandalism' by impersonated accounts on book review sites? -GIGAZINE

By master1305

Additionally, in the summer of 2023, it became a hot topic that a work set in the Soviet Union in the 1930s received strong backlash from some Ukrainian readers and was subject to review bombing. Here, poor moderation is pointed out as a problem with Goodreads. Goodreads has a person with the title ``Goodreads Expert'' who deletes posts that violate the rules, such as ``attacking the author regardless of the content of the book,'' but management is done manually. Therefore, it takes time to process.

``Review bombing'' ruins Goodreads, which was supposed to be the future of book reviews - GIGAZINE

In response to Mr. Colaine's incident, Goodreads said that it had removed all reviews posted by Mr. Collaine. Additionally, we have published a statement on our help page that says, ``Help us protect the integrity of Goodreads ratings and reviews.'' 'We are committed to ensuring that reviews on Goodreads are trustworthy and authentic for readers and authors,' the statement said. We continue to invest in improvements to detect and manage our products, including strengthening account verification and expanding our customer service team to improve response times. We want you to be stronger. In particular, if you come across an inappropriate review or fake account, please contact us using the form.'

Jane Friedman, who has a long career in the publishing industry, said Goodreads' response will temporarily halt review bombing. However, if the work is not popular and many people report problems with reviews, Friedman said, there is a high possibility that the work will not be protected because it will not be able to attract users to report malicious accounts. points out.