Huawei responds to allegations about soliciting fake user reviews

Yesterday a report came out alleging that Huawei solicited fake user reviews of the Mate 10 Pro in its private Facebook group, which has 60,000 members. The company told the members of that group to go and leave positive reviews on the Best Buy page listing the Mate 10 Pro (which is still on pre-order in the US), in exchange for a chance to be one of a few "beta testers" of the phone.

It was strange wording for sure - how can a positive review be anything but fake if you haven't used the device you're talking about? Android Authority has reached out to Huawei about this baffling situation, and received the following response from a spokesperson:

"Huawei’s first priority is always the consumer and we encourage our customers to share their experiences with our devices in their own voice and through authentic conversation. We believe there is confusion around a recent social media post reaching out to recruit new beta testers. While there are reviews from beta testers with extensive knowledge of the product, they were in no way given monetary benefits for providing their honest opinions of the product. However, we are working to remove posts by beta testers where it isn’t disclosed they participated in the review program."

So apparently the company already had people in the US "beta testing" the phone, and it's those people who left the reviews over at Best Buy.

To decide whether you believe that or not, here's what the now-infamous post on the Facebook group said: "Ready for the Mate 10 Pro? We are looking for US device beta testers. Here's how to enter: 1) Tell us how to why you WANT to own the Mate 10 Pro in the review section of our pre-sale Best Buy retail page; 2) Copy and share the URL of your entry in the comments".

Huawei says there was an internal miscommunication, and the social media manager mistakenly directed everyone in the Facebook group to leave "reviews" on Best Buy.