Facebook employees have been caught giving the company's own smart display Portal glowing reviews on Amazon.
This comes at the heels of when the social media brand has been embroiled in privacy issues and the like. In light of that, it became hard for it to sell devices like this, to the point that it may have had to sweeten the pot somehow to make them a more compelling buy — or perhaps highlight anecdotes to make them more convincing.
Portal Sells Great To Facebook Employees
Spotted by Kevin Roose of The New York Times (via The Verge), the five-star reviews for the Portal product pages on Amazon were made by users whose names match those of Facebook employees.
Without question, they bought their Portal device via Amazon, which is proven by the verified mark. Granting them the benefit of the doubt, they may simply be happy customers who happen to be working at Facebook.
However, as Roose and Engadget point out, Amazon's guidelines clearly state that this practice is prohibited. In other words, employees aren't allowed to leave reviews for their companies' products on the platform.
Confirmation From Facebook
Facebook agreed that the reviewers' behavior is wrong and have asked them to remove, with the executive Andrew "Boz" Bosworth making it clear that the company didn't encourage them to do it. By the same token, he has confirmed that the brand's employees did in fact leave five-star reviews on its products.
Notably, three users whose names raise doubts to the authenticity of their reviews include Facebook's Tim Chappell, head of supply chain and strategic sourcing AR/VR products; Oren Hafif, a security engineering manager; and Javier Cubria, an event marketer.
neither coordinated nor directed from the company. From an internal post at the launch: “We, unequivocally, DO NOT want Facebook employees to engage in leaving reviews for the products that we sell to Amazon.” We will ask them to take down. — Boz (@boztank) January 17, 2019
