Q: Review gating
Do you engage in review gating? On your homepage, the demo suggests "no", whereas on the industry-specific pages it suggests "yes". I need to be clear on this, to make sure I'm not putting myself or my business at risk.
As I'm sure you know, review gating (redirecting grumpy customers to leave private feedback instead of a public review) is illegal in the US at the federal level, and the FTC has made it clear they intend to come after offenders with big fines. It's also against the TOS for Google and other platforms and is likely to get your account banned.
https://gumado.com/blog/our-stance-on-review-gating
Samesh_W
Jul 18, 2025A: Hi Terrance,
We do offer the option to gate reviews if a business chooses to, though we strongly discourage it and display a prominent warning when it’s enabled. By default, review links on Spokk are set up without any gating. You can set a link up for your business for free to test it out. We give 30 form submissions for free.
If you have any other questions or need more details, please let me know!
That's great that you discourage it... but the fact that you allow it at all is still a red flag.
Risky for you: you're providing a platform for businesses to engage in behavior that is illegal in the United States
More importantly, risky for your customers: even being _associated_ with a platform/URL that allows for this behavior could result in your customers' accounts being banned or fined.
Humbly disagree... Large companies/franchises no gating sure. For small local businesses, we are talking about mom & pop who is fighting for 100 reviews, a few negative reviews can crush a business. Ie. 100 reviews 5-Star 35, 4-Star 42, 3-Star 14, 2-Star 5, 1-Star 4 = averages to 3-Star review assuming "whole numbers" only. 23 reviews gets you to 3-Stars! Yet, 77 4 & 5-Stars. Let us make it right!
A few negative reviews can crush a small mom & pop business? Imagine what a 5-figure fine from the FTC would do. Or Google suspending the account altogether. Small businesses need LESS risk, not more.