Apple is cracking down on fake reviews on the App Store

App developers know that having good ratings and reviews means more users will be wiling to download their app. And thanks to ratings’ influence on Apple’s ranking algorithms, it will help their app be better discovered via the App Store’s Top Charts as well. Because of this, some — okay, many — developers manipulate their apps’ positions by posting fake ratings and reviews. It’s sort of common knowledge these days, in fact. Any brief, glowing, five-star review is immediately suspect. As it turns out, it’s suspect to Apple, too. And now the company is doing something about it. For some period of time — it’s unclear exactly how long — Apple has been removing fake reviews from the App Store that have unjustly helped certain apps climb higher in the charts than they would have otherwise. There was some discussion of this on a forum back in May, when a handful of developers noticed that a good chunk of their reviews went missing. None admitted to having bought reviews, however, which is sadly a common practice now. Developers often post jobs on freelancer marketplaces asking for reviews, or buy them in bulk from shady, third-party providers.