The Federal Trade Commission may investigate the business practices of TripAdvisor after recent reports it suppressed posts by customers alleging rape and assaults at some Mexican resorts.
The travel planning site was recently accused by users of deleting their posts claiming serious safety issues including rape.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports an investigation could soon be underway based on a letter sent by the FTC to Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin.
"The Commission has a strong interest in protecting consumer confidence in the online marketplace, including the robust online market for hotel and travel. When consumers are unable to post honest reviews about a business, it can harm other consumers whose abilities to make well-informed purchase decisions are hindered and harm businesses that work hard to earn positive reviews," wrote FTC acting chair, Maureen Ohlhausen.
After an initial backlash TripAdvisor began adding warnings to the business pages of hotels where safety issues including sex assaults had been reported.
"As a user-generated content platform that receives hundreds pieces of content per minute every day, we believe our guidelines work well, but we also know we don’t always get it right," the company said in a statement.
"As we always do, we continue to review our guidelines and will continue to update them to better serve our users and businesses we support."
The travel company said it is unaware of any current or impending FTC investigation and hasn’t been in contact with the agency.
