HelloPeter.com review: The hellopeter right to reply payment racket

As a business owner, I found HelloPeter’s platform frustrating when dealing with a factually inaccurate and defamatory review. Despite notifying them via their report system that the content was false and defamatory and requesting its removal or correction, no action was taken. HelloPeter replied that the complainant had confirmed the facts and that was satisfactory to them, but that is a circular argument to ask the person posting the defamatory content whether their content is defamatory and untrue. They would never admit to that.
The only way in which a business can reply to a false and defamatory reply in instances like this is to subscribe to HelloPeter for R599 per month. So a business is required to pay for a right of reply. Non-paying businesses like mine are unable to reply publicly, which limits our ability to address such issues fairly.
This practice by HelloPeter raises concerns under Section 5 of South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act (PoPIA), which grants data subjects the right to request the correction or deletion of inaccurate or misleading personal information. This situation can potentially cause ongoing to harm unless businesses pay for premium features to respond or mitigate.
Overall, this model feels unbalanced and bordering on extortionate for small businesses seeking equitable resolution.