united-kingdom internet
Can a website only publish good reviews?
<p>My mate was buying a car from AutoTrader UK and heavily relying on reviews in their website. When I mentioned it to a relative of mine who owns a car supermarket he said that to post a review in AutoTrader you need to contact the dealer and ask them for a link. This obviously means only good reviews would go online unless someone is shameless and determined to post a negative review.</p>

<p>Slightly related to <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/7688/is-it-legal-to-publish-a-review-of-a-travel-service-without-letting-the-service">this question</a>, but still different- is it OK for a website to only post positive reviews for their sellers?</p>

<p>There are no laws requiring that any company must publish <em>all</em> opinions from its customers.  </p>

<p>I'll admit it's fundamentally dishonest to only publish the positives, but there's no prohibition against it either.  Look at movie advertisements, for example.  They'll paraphrase or selectively quote a review, citing only what seems to be positive, yet if you read the review and quote in context, you'll understand the review quite differently.</p>

<p>How exactly would you police it if you were to require companies to publish all 
reviews?  Would you have some kind of litmus test to determine whether the critique is justified and fair?  How often do people post <em>false</em> reviews (good or bad), and how would you account for them?</p>

<p>Company web sites offering reviews form their own customers are doing nothing more than using the web as an extension of their marketing, so one has to expect some manipulation of the information in order to present products and services in their best possible lights.  Why, for example, would I tell you how much someone hates my product when my goal is to sell it to you?</p>

<p>This is why it would be better to use independent third-party review sites that have no dog in the hunt when it comes to honest feedback about the companies they cover. </p>

<p>A website can do whatever it likes, if they only want positive reviews, that is fine, if they have a system that makes it so the seller has to give permission for a review to be written, that is also fine. </p>

<p>There are a few limits to free speech in the UK, this is not covered by any of them.</p>
