Today Fiverr started with removing all testimonial gigs. I have stopped offering testimonials for the past year and I consider this move by Fiverr to be a good thing.
I never wanted to perform testimonials in the first place, but it was the only way to enter the marketplace, and I accepted this as the morphing of my industry into a new paradigm. …Until the FTC issued their warning that they will be criminally prosecuting ALL parties who continue their involvement in the violation of the Truth-in-Advertising Act…yep, that would mean me! So, last year I changed my gig to better comply with the FTC guidelines. However, Fiverr can’t police the site to be certain Buyers and Sellers abide like I have, so they’ve eliminated the category altogether.
Now, testimonials are not the only illegal activity I find on Fiverr. Indeed, there are gigs that require licensing, or blatantly exploit consumers, and so on. I suspect these categories will be the next to go.