Italiano
Ochlocracy, as described by the ancient Greek philosopher Polybius, is a degenerative form of Democracy, where the power is not given to the “demos” as a political body, but instead to a chaotic, unorganized and blurred mob (intended as a crowd of people). Thus, there is just a “democratic illusion”, where all the choices are taken according changeable moods of the majority, often misleaded or even corrupted by some pretentious leaders.
TripAdvisor doesn’t need any further presentation I guess. It is, simply and purely, the largest travel site in the world, with more than 315 million members, 435 million views per month and over 535 million reviews and opinions of hotels, restaurants, attractions and other travel-related businesses (Source: Tripadvisor.com).
But why comparing TripAdvisor with a theoretical form of degenerated democracy?
Well, first of all, there’s no way to identify insiders, or, better said, people who have any kind of experience in the Hospitality business: awarding users according to the number of reviews published is not quite the same thing, is it? Topics as such as food quality, refurbishment or safety standard are judged by very subjective and personal opinions of who, very often, has no education whatsoever about this matter. There’s the first similarity with the form of government leaded by what Polybius used to identify as óchlos. An explanative example of how some bad and “eccentric” reviews may affect one of the most popular hotel worldwide, the “Ritz” in London, is at the following link: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2011/jan/25/tripadvisor-duncan-bannatyne
As Polybius warned us about the corruption that would affect population in this pathological form of Democracy, also on TripAdvisor “money can buy happiness”: what I mean by this is that good reviews or bad reviews (those to be sent to the competiors’pages, obviously!) can be bought. There are even some companies dedicated to it; and some of them looks actually very convincing: http://www.review-shop.com/).
Once a business is registered on TripAdvisor (not necessarily by the owner; any registered user can do it), it cannot be taken down. And, as we all know, it is not mandatory to eat at that restaurant nor to sleep at that hotel to write a review about. This (allow me to call it) “bug” make the business ‘owner expose to the “changeable mood of the mob”, who may be misleaded by any rumour or fake news. Even worse, being on TripAdvisor might place the owners or managers at the mercy of blackmails.
Are the countermeasures adequate? Are the option for owners to reply to the reviews, or the screening for fake reviews made by TripAdvisor staff any good for fighting back this “degeneration”?
