(ETH) – Yelp, which is an American public company headquartered in San Francisco, California that develops, hosts, and markets a website and mobile app, designed to publish crowd-sourced reviews about businesses has recently decided to alert users when a business has been accused of egregious racist behavior in a credible news story, according to a report from Forbes.
This will mark the first prominent review platform to make such a bold move in the wake of racial justice protests across the U.S. The report states that a team of human moderators will be put into place that flag a company’s Yelp page stating “Business Accused of Racist Behavior Alert” if there’s “resounding evidence of egregious, racist actions from a business owner or employee, such as using overtly racist slurs or symbols.”
The alert will also include a link to a credible news outlet where users can then read and discover why the company was flagged and know more about the accusations in detail. The company hopes that this new alert system will help customers make “decisions about whether they’ll be welcome and safe at a particular business.”
The new efforts are raising many concerns as many still question the moderation, including what counts as “resounding evidence” in a news story, what media outlets Yelp considers “credible” or exactly how long a notification will remain on a business’ page.
In fact, Forbes stated that “Right-wing pundits slammed the announcement, arguing businesses could be hurt by false or disputed accusations. “What are the odds that this isn’t insanely abused?” Donald Trump Jr. tweeted. However, A Yelp spokesperson assured that the alerts will be “rare” and “can appear for days or several weeks” as it removes reviews that aren’t based on first-hand experience.
