Yelp Will Now Label Businesses Accused Of Racist Behavior

In a recent blog post, Yelp announced it will begin providing users with a Business Accused of Racist Behavior Alert.

They explain the feature, saying, "As the nation reckons with issues of systemic racism, we’ve seen in the last few months that there is a clear need to warn consumers about businesses associated with egregious, racially-charged actions to help people make more informed spending decisions."

"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."

They add that the Business Accused of Racist Behavior Alert is an extension of their Public Attention Alert they introduced due to the rise in activism surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement.

"If someone associated with a business is accused of, or the target of, racist behavior, we will place a Public Attention Alert on the business page to warn consumers that the business may be receiving an influx of reviews as a result of increased attention."

Also, suppose a company is accused of overtly racist actions, and they can link to a news article about it. In that case, they will escalate a warning with the Business Accused of Racist Behavior Alert.

The company lastly points out that in 2020, they've seen a 133% increase in media-fueled incidences on Yelp compared to 2019. Additionally, they put over 450 alerts on pages that were accused of, or the target of, racist behavior related to the Black Lives Matter movement.