Amazon’s book reviews fail the truth test

First Benghazi, then her emails, and now this: Amazon last week deleted about 900 mostly negative reviews of Hillary Clinton’s new memoir, What Happened.

Clinton’s critics pounced on the news as evidence Amazon colluded to protect her image and boost book sales. “This is just more proof that Hillary Clinton is a propped up hero of the left,” wrote Cristina Laila of Gateway Pundit.

Amazon insisted it acted to protect the integrity of its reviews, not to skew them in Clinton’s favor. What happened with What Happened shined a spotlight on the deep pitfalls with Amazon’s user-generated review system and how it can hurt both authors and readers.

Clinton’s book, released Sept. 12, had more than 1,500 highly polarized reviews on Amazon by Wednesday morning.

“It seems highly unlikely that approximately 1,500 people read Hillary Clinton’s book overnight and came to the stark conclusion that it is either brilliant or awful,” Simon & Schuster president and publisher Jonathan Karp said.

A little more than 20 percent of the reviews came from people who actually bought the book on Amazon, according to a report by Quartz, and many of the reviews had nothing to do with the content of the book. One reviewer wrote, “Trump happened. Look in the mirror, Hillary. There’s the problem,” according to a screenshot captured by Gateway Pundit.

Tommy Noonan of ReviewMeta, a company that analyzes the veracity of online reviews, told Quartz the reaction to Clinton’s book on Amazon was much more likely a case of brigading, where a group of internet critics purposefully attacks a product or book online. Brigades target conservatives and liberals alike: ReviewMeta listed Megyn Kelly’s book Settle for More, Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Reagan, and a “Make America Great Again” Christmas ornament as victims of the practice.

Overinflated positive reviews also have plagued Amazon in the past. In October 2016, the ecommerce site banned so-called “incentivized reviews” in which customers received free or discounted products in exchange for writing a review. Just before the change, according to ReviewMeta, such reviews made up more than half of all new reviews on the site. And incentivized reviewers were four times less likely to leave a critical review than a nonincentivized one.

Amazon has a serious truth problem—and one of its own making—with its review system. The number of customer reviews a product receives on Amazon does not play a role in its search algorithm, according to a company spokesperson. But that has not stopped many sellers from expending a huge amount of effort trying to influence reviewers and improve their rankings in search results. The site does not allow product reviews by seller’s friends and family and will remove reviews if they appear to violate the rule. Even so, authors, especially lesser-known ones, have been known to beg friends and family for lots of reviews when their books are released. Because of Amazon’s mammoth market share, there is a high temptation to cheat, with a low financial cost. Publishers’ known practice of gaming The New York Times best-seller list by buying hard copies of books en masse seems archaic in comparison and could soon become obsolete.

Editor’s note: This article has been edited to note that Amazon banned incentivized reviews in October 2016 and to include the company’s statements on its search algorithm and reviews by friends and family .

Iron fists

Jake LaMotta, the unflinching boxer memorialized in the 1980 film Raging Bull, died Wednesday after a bout of pneumonia. He was 95. Known as the “Bronx Bull,” LaMotta compiled an 83-19-4 record with 30 knockouts during a 13-year boxing career that began in 1941. The strong-chinned fighter could take and dish out severe punishment, and an opponent knocked him down only once in his 106 fights. LaMotta’s fame resurged because of the 1980 film by Martin Scorcese, based loosely on his autobiography. Robert De Niro won an Academy Award for playing LaMotta, portrayed as a violent and abusive husband. “I’m no angel,” LaMotta said in a 2005 interview with the Associated Press. He was married six times and is survived by four daughters and a longtime girlfriend. —L.L.

Music with a message

A young Venezuelan violinist who played music at antigovernment protests could seek asylum in the United States. Wuilly Arteaga, 23, performed Tuesday at the Lincoln Center in New York. He played Venezuelan folk music as images from protests appeared on a screen behind him. Arteaga said he feared returning home because of death threats he received after speaking out against the authoritarian communist regime of President Nicolas Maduro. Arteaga became famous for playing the Venezuelan national anthem amid clouds of tear gas at a protest. During one demonstration earlier this year, security forces dragged Arteaga and his violin to the ground and threw him in jail, where he was beaten. Arteaga hopes to find work in the United States before applying for asylum. —L.L.

Out of touch

Sunday night’s Emmy Awards broadcast was a bust in more ways than one. The show drew 11.3 million viewers, just slightly more than last year’s record low. President Donald Trump, the butt of many of the evening’s jokes, rubbed it in on Twitter. “Smartest people of them all are the ‘DEPLORABLES,’” making a tongue-in-cheek reference to the liberal elite’s favorite term for Trump supporters. Everyone I rooted for lost, except Sterling K. Brown, who won best actor for This Is Us, which lost in the best drama category to The Handmaid’s Tale. —L.L.

Comic crusader

Late night host Jimmy Kimmel renewed calls this week for universal healthcare, using the opening monologues on his show to lambast Republicans who want to repeal Obamacare. Conservative commentator Erick Erickson raised this question: Where is Kimmel’s compassion for those whose premiums have skyrocketed since the Affordable Care Act took effect? —L.L.