Trust & SafetyJan 27, 2025

Building Trust in Online Marketplaces: How AI Moderation Can Help

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Melissa

Copywriter

Trust makes or breaks online marketplaces. When buyers and sellers don't trust a platform, they leave - it's that simple. And right now, marketplace trust is under siege from every direction.

Counterfeit products flood popular categories. Sophisticated scammers create realistic-looking listings with stolen photos. Fake reviews manipulate rankings. Price gouging pops up during high-demand periods. And that's just the obvious stuff. Behind the scenes, fraud rings coordinate sophisticated schemes, money laundering operations hide in plain sight, and drop-shipping scams trick buyers with fake tracking numbers.

Table of Contents

For marketplace Trust & Safety teams, it's an endless game of whack-a-mole. Traditional moderation tools catch basic violations, but fraudsters constantly adapt their tactics. Human moderators work hard to spot complex schemes, but the sheer volume of content makes thorough review impossible. Something has to give.

Understanding Marketplace Dynamics

This is where AI-powered moderation platforms like Lasso make a difference. But not through generic AI - through a new layer of specialized Virtual Moderators that actually understand marketplace dynamics. These AI assistants sit between basic automated filters and human moderators, handling the vast middle ground of cases that are too complex for simple rules but don't require human judgment.

The timing couldn't be better. With the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA) now requiring faster response times and better transparency around moderation decisions, marketplaces need solutions that scale. The DSA's requirements for quick takedowns of illegal content and clear explanations of moderation decisions aren't optional - they come with heavy fines for non-compliance.

Trust & Safety + AI Moderation

But here's what makes specialized Virtual Moderators particularly valuable: they work alongside human moderators. Basic content gets filtered automatically. Complex cases that need human judgment get escalated. Everything in between - the massive volume of content that bogs down moderation teams - gets handled by the Virtual Moderator.

This changes how Trust & Safety teams operate. Instead of rushing through hundreds of borderline cases, human moderators can focus on sophisticated fraud schemes and complex policy decisions. They become fraud investigators and policy experts rather than content screeners.

The numbers make the value clear. Most marketplaces see 90% of their moderation load fall into this middle ground - cases too nuanced for basic filters but routine enough that they shouldn't need human review. Moving these cases to Virtual Moderators means faster response times, more consistent decisions, and better use of human expertise.

Looking ahead, when these specialized Virtual Moderators launch and improve over time, marketplaces face a clear choice. They can keep throwing resources at an unsustainable moderation model, or they can adopt tools that actually match the sophistication of modern marketplace fraud.

Smart Trust & Safety teams are already planning for this transition and take this into account when selecting a moderation platform vendor. They understand that protecting marketplace trust isn't just about having more moderators - it's about having the right tools to identify and stop fraud effectively. With regulatory pressure increasing and fraud schemes growing more sophisticated, specialized AI moderation isn't just helpful - it's becoming essential for marketplace survival.

The marketplaces that thrive in the coming years will be those that maintain user trust while keeping operational costs in check. AI-powered moderation platforms, using specialized Virtual Moderators as an additional moderation layer offer a practical path to achieving both goals. By handling the bulk of routine moderation decisions intelligently, they free human teams to focus on what really matters: keeping their marketplace safe, trustworthy, and compliant.

How Lasso Moderation Can Help

At Lasso, we believe that online moderation technology should be affordable, scalable, and easy to use. Our AI-powered moderation platform allows moderators to manage content more efficiently and at scale, ensuring safer and more positive user experiences. From detecting harmful content to filtering spam, our platform helps businesses maintain control, no matter the size of their community.

Book a demo here.

Want to learn more about Content Moderation?

Learn how a platform like Lasso Moderation can help you with moderating your platform. Book a free call with one of our experts.

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