Amazon bars trolls from review-bombing James Comey's new book
Amazon isn't letting Donald Trump trolls mire former FBI director James Comey's new book in negative one-star reviews.
The online retailer has placed limits on customer reviews of Comey's tell-all, Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership. In order to share your thoughts you'll need to be a "verified buyer," i.e. someone who has actually purchased the book.
The limitation was first spotted by Deadline, but it's an easy enough thing for anyone to confirm.
Simply head over to Amazon's product listing for Higher Loyalty, scroll down to and click the "Customer Reviews" button, and try to leave feedback or select a star rating. If you haven't purchased the book, you'll be greeted with this message:
"This product currently has limitations on submitting reviews," the note reads. "This may be because we detected unusual review behavior on this product, or to maintain the best possible shopping experience."
At the time of this writing, Higher Loyalty has 570 Amazon reviews in total, 89 percent of which received a "5 star" rating. Amazon reviews aren't always a testament to a particular product's quality, but given Comey's notoriety among Trump's base, it's fair to say this could have been a lighting rod for trolls.
Review bombing, in case you're not clear, occurs when swarms of non-buyers wade in to poorly review a particular product they have no intention of purchasing. These review bombers typically go in with the agenda of smearing the product and/or its creator.
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
