Court battles giving reviewers a hard time

Two links in this post; one about Yelp being ordered by a US court to name the person behind an anonymous review and another about a legal battle to force TripAdvisor to do the same.

The rules for content and platforms are known. Important decisions like a safe harbour and the DMCA cover what happens to a piece of content that belongs to someone else. What about people?

From the BBC; Anonymous online critics must be identified, says court

Users who have posted negative comments on the online review site Yelp must be identified, a US court has ordered.

The case involved the owner of a carpet-cleaning business who told the court bad reviews written about his company were not from real customers.

From STV news; B&B owners in court in bid to sue writers of bad TripAdvisor review

The owners of a Highland guest house have gone to court to seek details from an internet travel website of the writers of two bad reviews in a bid to sue the authors.

Martin and Jacqui Clark said that one report was false and that another set out events that were fictional.

There is some overlap in the cases. Each time the complaint is that the review is fictional. Will this mean that review platforms ask for a photograph or two?

Additionally, please note that this quick post was first written for Zebra Eclipse ten years ago and moved to ARHG in 2023, back-dated.