Yelp adds alerts to businesses accused of racism

Company says it will issue alert when there is ‘resounding evidence’ of racism

Yelp adds alerts for businesses accused of racism (REUTERS)

Yelp has announced it will be flagging businesses where customers or employees have reported incidents of racism as part of an effort to combat discrimination.

On Thursday, the review website’s vice president of operations, Noorie Malik, said in a blog post that Yelp will place a “business accused of racist behaviour” alert on a business page when there is “resounding evidence of egregious, racist actions from a business owner or employee.”

According to the company, the alert will be triggered for behaviour such as using “overtly racist slurs or symbols”.

In addition to informing visitors that the business has been flagged for racist behaviour, the alert will also link users to a news article from a credible media outlet so users can “learn more” about the incident, Yelp states.

The company said it implemented the alerts after recognising “a clear need to warn consumers about businesses associated with egregious, racially-charged actions to help people make more informed spending decisions” amid a recent racial reckoning in the country.

“At Yelp, we value diversity, inclusion and belonging, both internally and on our platform, which means we have a zero tolerance policy to racism,” Malik said. “We know these values are important to our users and now more than ever, consumers are increasingly conscious of the types of businesses they patronise and support.

“…Yelp’s top priority is to ensure the trust and safety of our users and provide them with reliable content to inform their spending decisions, including decisions about whether they’ll be welcome and safe at a particular business.”

In the blog post, the company said that the new alerts are an extension of the public attention alerts Yelp uses to warn users that a business may be receiving an influx of reviews as a result of increased attention or media.

“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,” it explained, adding that it doesn’t allow people to leave reviews based on media reports.

The company also said it will “default to a general public attention alert to inform consumers if someone associated with the business was accused of, or the target of, racist behaviour".

According to Yelp, the new initiative comes amid an increase in reports of racist behaviour related to the Black Lives Matter movement, with the platform revealing that it has placed more than 450 alerts on business pages accused of or targeted by racism between 26 May and 30 September.

On social media, Yelp’s announcement was met with a range of reactions, with some applauding the company while others expressed concern about potential misuse of the alerts.

“Thank you! I appreciate this. Especially you all attaching the news articles to the alert so that we can see the source of the information,” one person tweeted.

“Thank you Yelp for being on the right side of history. Judging by these vile racist comments, it's obvious that racism is alive and well,” someone else wrote.

Critics included the president’s son Donald Trump Jr, who tweeted: “The bullsh** never ends. What are the odds that this isn’t insanely abused?”

“Uninstalled your app…  allowing customers to target businesses with racial overtones? You’ll just hurt small businesses by empowering cancel culture. Poor decision,” another person wrote.