Yelp announced Thursday a new ‘racist behavior alert’ for businesses that are accused of “egregious, racially-charged actions.”
“Yelp’s User Operations team already places alerts on business pages when we notice an unusual uptick in reviews that are based on what someone may have seen in the news or on social media, rather than on a first-hand experience with the business,” Noorie Malik, Yelp’s vice president of user operations, wrote in a blog update.
“Now, when a business gains public attention for reports of racist conduct, such as using racist language or symbols, Yelp will place a new Business Accused of Racist Behavior Alert on their Yelp page to inform users, along with a link to a news article where they can learn more about the incident,” Malik added.
The new alert is another response to what Yelp calls “media-fueled reviews,” reviews that are posted on businesses’ pages that are not based on first-hand experiences, and is an escalation from the company’s “Public Attention Alert,” which indicates that “the business may be receiving an influx of reviews as a result of increased attention.”
Yelp has experienced a 133% increase in reviews that are based on increased media attention, according to the company.
Yelp’s announcement has been met with criticism concerning what the criteria would be for an alert appearing on a business’s page. Radio host Matt Walsh said the feature would give “race hoaxers a specific tool to destroy any business they want on a whim.”
Honest to God I read this tweet without looking at the account and thought it was a parody. But no, it’s real. Yelp is really giving race hoaxers a specific tool to destroy any business they want on a whim. https://t.co/8G51LQfCQZ
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) October 9, 2020
UFC fighter Tim Kennedy said the move would “perpetuate the opportunity for cancel [culture] to flourish.”
Idiots: when a business perpetuate the opportunity for cancel course to flourish. https://t.co/nsYMpZ0agL
— Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyMMA) October 9, 2020
Yelp said that the process for determining the appropriate alert level is completely human-driven and involves investigations from Yelp’s user operations team. The company noted that all racist behavior alerts will also include news articles explaining the allegations. Otherwise, the business will receive either an “Unusual Activity Alert” or a “Public Attention Alert,” both of which temporarily disable the ability to post reviews of the business.
A representative from Yelp told the Washington Examiner, “Our top priority is to ensure the trust and safety of our community and provide users with reliable content to inform their spending decisions, including decisions about whether they’ll be welcome and safe at a particular business.” The representative also reiterated that the alerts “warn users that some of these reviews may not be based on first-hand experiences.”
This is not Yelp’s first move to address racial issues on its platform this year. Earlier this summer, Yelp released a black-owned business attribute for companies after receiving “an outpouring of requests from our community to provide an easy way to find and support Black-owned businesses on Yelp.” Yelp said that searches on its platform for black-owned businesses surged 35-fold over the same period last year. The initiative was designed to support black business owners who had been disproportionately hurt by the coronavirus lockdowns across the country.
