Expensive to get wrongUnited States

A filtered review wall is a misrepresentation

The same FTC rule bars a business from misrepresenting that the reviews displayed on its site represent all or most of those submitted when reviews have been suppressed on the basis of their rating or negative sentiment, and prohibits using groundless legal threats or intimidation to remove a negative review.

Most review widgets ship with a moderation queue, so the setting that hides one-star reviews is a compliance decision somebody made without knowing it was one.

93 of a possible 97Tier A, primary document or measured outcome. Nothing at this tier is allowed past 97, however good it looks.

Verified August 5, 2026Rechecked every 180 days, next by February 1, 2027.

Constraint

Held since October 21, 2024A rule, law or policy that limits what you may do or say. The earliest date we are willing to say this held. It may well have been true before that; we do not backdate a record past the evidence we have read. Supported, version 1.

This entry is wrong if

The FTC withdraws the review-suppression provision, or states that rating-based filtering of displayed reviews is permitted without disclosure.

Written before the record was published, not after. If you can show this, send it to hello@tryorbt.com and the correction goes on the record with the entry.

Evidence

Tier Aregulation
U.S. Federal Trade Commission: Final Rule Banning Fake Reviews and Testimonials
The final rule also bars a business from misrepresenting that the reviews on a review portion of its website represent all or most of the reviews submitted when reviews have been suppressed based upon their ratings or negative sentiment.
Read 2026-08-05 · Public domain · page hash 5b8afaf9a768

History

v1createdAugust 5, 2026
Initial entry from primary regulator text, read 2026-08-04.

Append-only. Nothing in this list is edited or removed once written, including the entries that record our own mistakes. Every change to every record is on the corrections page, and the same log is in entries.json under revisions.

reviews
moderation
ftc
enforcement
trust
compliance

Cite this entry

“A filtered review wall is a misrepresentation”, The Orbt Market Index 0.1.0, entry omr:us:suppressing-negative-reviews-is-prohibited, retrieved September 9, 2026, https://tryorbt.com/markets/entry/us--suppressing-negative-reviews-is-prohibited. Dataset: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22679129

Orbt, "A filtered review wall is a misrepresentation," Orbt Market Index, entry omr:us:suppressing-negative-reviews-is-prohibited, verified August 5, 2026, https://tryorbt.com/markets/entry/us--suppressing-negative-reviews-is-prohibited.

@misc{orbt-us-suppressing-negative-reviews-is-prohibited,
  title        = {A filtered review wall is a misrepresentation},
  author       = {{Orbt}},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.22679129},
  note         = {The Orbt Market Index 0.1.0 (dataset DOI 10.5281/zenodo.22679129), entry omr:us:suppressing-negative-reviews-is-prohibited. Verified 2026-08-05},
  howpublished = {\url{https://tryorbt.com/markets/entry/us--suppressing-negative-reviews-is-prohibited}},
  license      = {Orbt Index Public Licence. Free to quote and cite; not to redistribute}
}

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We derive from public sources and we do not independently audit them. Where a source says its own records are unverified, that carries through to us. What we do promise is that every figure is recomputed from stored rows, every claim publishes the observation that would overturn it, and every correction goes on the public log. If something here is wrong, tell us and it changes in the open.

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This entry is wrong if

Evidence

History

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