Stop deletion of online complaints

Staff members from a female dress brand work late at night at the Haizhu Creative Industry Park to welcome the coming "Singles Day" in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong province, Nov 10, 2013.[Photo/Xinhua]

Tuesday was World Consumer Rights Day and it has once again brought into the spotlight the companies that are paid to delete the negative comments and complaints about businesses posted online. These Internet PR service providers are paid to delete all kinds of comments including news reports, BBS forum discussions and blogs. Rednet.cn commented on Tuesday:

Every year around World Consumer Rights Day, some companies or enterprises seek to delete online complaints and negative comments, and they are willing to pay PR companies to do this.

Paying to delete complaints violates the rights of customers. The purpose of wiping the threads is to cover up the truth and create a false image, cloaking the secrets behind their profits in darkness. Therefore, it counts as another way of hiding the malice in business. In 2013, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate defined the deleting of consumer's online comments as illegal.

We should reflect on the phenomenon. Violations of customers' rights have been increasing, and as a result online complaints have increased as well.

It is still difficult for customers to protect their rights, especially with the lack of easy, convenient and efficient channels for them to seek redress. If the only official channel functioned as it should, there would be fewer complaints.

And there will always be those willing to profit by silencing customers' complaints.

Hence, more efficient channels should be established for the management of online comments.