IMAGE VIA YELP

Yelp, the crowd-sourced food-rating app, has just added an alert option that will flag businesses that are accused of “overtly racist actions.”

Yelp has already been known to place Public Attention Alerts at the top of business pages that consistently reviewed poorly following contentious posts on social media or first-hand experiences of customers but the new alert is causing much more of a stir.

The Racist Behavior Alert is a direct response to the Black Lives Matter movement and a recent rise in social activism across the county. If a business is accused of racist behavior, Yelp users will see a Public Attention Alert appear on the business page to warn them that the business may be receiving an influx of reviews as a result. Then, if a news article is posted that confirms the racist behavior, the warning will be elevated to a full Business Accused of Racist Behavior Alert, that links to that news article.

Yelp has reported a 133 percent increase in the number of “media-fueled incidences” on Yelp compared to last year, and it placed more than 450 alerts on business pages that were accused of, or the target of, racist behavior.

You can read more about the alert HERE on the Yelp website.

Yelp has reported a 617 percent spike in reviews that mention Black-owned businesses this year and a 114 percent spike in reviews that mention women-owned businesses.

Brendan O'Connor

Editor in Chief of Bungalower.com

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