[mttyng]

Maybe I overlooked it, but what’s to prevent a person (or group of people) from filing false claims of racist behavior? They noted it had to be a “first hand experience”, but what sort of proof does that entail?

In a perfect world this is a noble endeavor, but we don’t live in a perfect world and this could just as easily be leveraged by trolls and/or competing businesses.

[onedognight]

What’s to stop someone from filing false claims of bad service? Add racism to the list. Rooting out false claims is pretty much Yelp’s main service. Or maybe getting kickbacks to hide real claims of bad service is their main service? It’s an imperfect system, but a person looking to avoid aggressive or even passive racist treatment might like to error on the side of caution. An extra partially noisy bit of data seems worth it.

[Pet_Ant]

Being accused of racism is much more deleterious than of bad service.

[alphabettsy]

This surely isn’t always or even usually the case. A local business owner recently made some racist comments on Facebook and ended up seeing a massive lines of people in MAGA gear in the following days.

[awakeasleep]

I still wonder if there could be any negative externalities or consequences that would counterbalance the benefit of helping those cautious folk.

[marcinzm]

That’s a bonus for Yelp, they then get to charge the business to have it removed.

[strbean]

Hey now, you mean they get to charge the company for "advertising", and then "lose" the complaint.

[SCAQTony]

Perhaps YELP is taking advantage of the fact that it is not a perfect world and subsequently using that flaw as a business model by possibly extorting fees to have such claims removed.

[raxxorrax]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp

This company is what I would call "unhelpful" to stay diplomatic. I think this decision is to increase extortion to buy their ad services.

edit: perhaps they just want to forward accusations:

https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-yelp-phoneix-insiders...

[curiousllama]

There has to be a news article about it. If you can get the Chicago Tribune to vet and cover your accusation, Yelp will note it. If not, they won’t.

[AmericanChopper]

> Maybe I overlooked it, but what’s to prevent a person (or group of people) from filing false claims of racist behavior?

What’s to stop a person from making a false claim of racist behavior against any person/public figure/politician/businessperson/colleague... they don’t like? The answer is “nothing at all”, and it happens everyday. If you’re particularly unlucky it will be scandalized publicly and appear as a permanent mark on your social credit score.

Yelp is just incorporating our own social norms into their product. If you don’t like it, it’s not their fault.

[MeinBlutIstBlau]

It's different though when they are the ones putting a "racist" flag because of some random customer defaming you. They have absolutely no way to verify hearsay. They have to stay out of it.

[estebank]

It's a good thing that Yelp will not be doing that then:

  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. 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.

[sigmaprimus]

So let me get this straight? You are not going to put alerts on buisnesses that you recieved first hand information on being racist but instead use second hand news as the bar to decide wether or not do so?

I think there was a hit Fleetwood Mac song about that strategy, or maybe it was Marvin Gaye.

Why don't you just be honest and admit the real reason for this contrived change in policy and message was to drive attention towards YELP. It is nothing more than a publicity stunt leveraging the current state of unrest.

From the number of comments on this site, it worked.

[MeinBlutIstBlau]

Damn...they totally got me and I didn't even pause to think of that.

[AmericanChopper]

That’s not quite what they’re doing. But it doesn’t really matter. As a society, we have already very clearly established that as a perfectly acceptable threshold for upholding an accusation of racism.