Beitrag Mi 24. Feb 2021, 07:21

Google halts 'review bombing' of stock market apps

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Google has removed a wave of negative reviews of popular stock-market trading apps targeted by furious investors.

Platforms such as Robinhood have been hit after preventing independent traders buying GameStop and AMC shares.

Users of a Reddit message board had managed to upset the market by buying the shares and inflating their value, hitting established hedge funds.

Many online traders, feeling betrayed by Robinhood's restrictions, have hit back with critical reviews of the app.
Google has removed tens of thousands of one-star reviews for the widely-used trading app - which had previously had a four-star average.

It says it takes action when it sees "fake ratings", designed to manipulate a product's average score.

But more one-star ratings - the minimum possible - have continued to appear.

While Robinhood stopped independent users from buying some shares after the surge in investment by independent traders, they still remained available to large, professional traders elsewhere- leading to accusations that Robinhood was effectively protecting big investors and manipulating the stock market.

Robinhood said that the restrictions were put in place for "risk-management" reasons - and not because it had been told to limit activity by anyone else.

But as first reported by 9to5Google, it prompted a co-ordinated campaign to hit the app with a barrage of one-star reviews.

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The site reported that more than 100,000 negative reviews had brought the average rating from four stars down to just one.

Hours later, Google intervened to delete roughly 100,000 reviews, according to the review counter, restoring the app's high rating.