A previous employer of mine had a Glassdoor "problem" with bad reviews. Now when people leave they are bribed with a week's pay to promise not to post anything bad, and their Glassdoor reviews now are packed with glowing praise that look quite fake and contrived.

Show me a rating system and I'll show you ways for people to game it.

Is there any evidence that glassdoor lets employers do this? I think glassdoor actually specifically says that they won't, unless it violates a law somehow. They even specifically state that they "don’t take sides in factual or contractual disputes between employers and reviewers."

https://help.glassdoor.com/article/I-m-an-employer-What-can-...

Anecdote: A former company I worked for had a negative Glassdoor Review. It "disappeared". Dunno how, but it's not there anymore.

I suspect at some point they could be removed. But again, anecdote.

Generally employers figure out who left the bad review and threaten legal action to the person who made the review. It isn't Glassdoor that removes the review but the person who wrote it.

Also anecdotal: our employer "highly encouraged" us to write glowing reviews of the company as a marketing effort to make the company look better to potential hires.

Potentially leaving them open to the pettiest securities fraud suit ever.

How does one know when an account is "employer active"?

That's so unfortunate. I remember back when Glassdoor prided themselves on not doing that.

Oh look a penny..