New Yelp Alert Helps Flag Businesses Accused Of Racism

Yelp is launching an alert to inform users if a business has been “accused of racist behavior.” Noorie Malik, Yelp’s vice president of User Operations, announced the measures Thursday in a statement posted on the company’s blog.

“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 wrote.

The business review giant said that since the death of George Floyd, there has been an increased need to let customers know about businesses associated with “egregious, racially-charged actions to help people make more informed spending decisions.”

Yelp already placed alerts on business pages that receive an unusual uptick in reviews. Yelp notifies users when businesses receive extra attention because it was on the news, as opposed to word-of-mouth recommendations by other customers.

Now, when a business attracts attention for racist conduct, such as using racist language or symbols, Yelp said that it’ll let its users know by placing a “Business Accused of Racist Behavior Alert” on the business' Yelp page. Yelp will also add a link to news articles about the incident, where users can get more information.

The new alert is an extension of the company’s “Public Attention Alert,” which was introduced in response to a rise in social 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,” Malik said.

“For businesses accused of overtly racist actions, where we can link to a news article, we will escalate our warning with the Business Accused of Racist Behavior Alert,” she added.

According to Yelp, the company has seen a 133% increase in the number of “media-fueled incidences” compared to the same time last year.

Between May 26 and Sept. 30, more than 450 alerts were placed on business pages “that were either accused of, or the target of, racist behavior related to the Black Lives Matter movement.”