9 ms·

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 ex

by mttyng 6y ago

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.

marcinzm 6y ago
That’s a bonus for Yelp, they then get to charge the business to have it removed.
- strbean 6y ago
  Hey now, you mean they get to charge the company for "advertising", and then "lose" the complaint.
onedognight 6y ago
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.
- awakeasleep 6y ago
  I still wonder if there could be any negative externalities or consequences that would counterbalance the benefit of helping those cautious folk.
- Pet_Ant 6y ago
  Being accused of racism is much more deleterious than of bad service.
  - alphabettsy 6y ago
    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.
SCAQTony 6y ago
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.
curiousllama 6y ago
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 6y ago
> 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 6y ago
  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.
  - AmericanChopper 6y ago
    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.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - estebank 6y ago
    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.
raxxorrax 6y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp 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-allegations-racism-sexism-drugs-2020-9 https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-yelp-phoneix-insiders...

by mttyng 6y ago

marcinzm 6y ago

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

strbean 6y ago
Hey now, you mean they get to charge the company for "advertising", and then "lose" the complaint.

onedognight 6y ago

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.

awakeasleep 6y ago
I still wonder if there could be any negative externalities or consequences that would counterbalance the benefit of helping those cautious folk.
Pet_Ant 6y ago
Being accused of racism is much more deleterious than of bad service.
- alphabettsy 6y ago
  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.

SCAQTony 6y ago

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.

curiousllama 6y ago

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 6y ago

> 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 6y ago
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.
- AmericanChopper 6y ago
  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.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- estebank 6y ago
  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.

raxxorrax 6y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp 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-allegations-racism-sexism-drugs-2020-9 https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-yelp-phoneix-insiders...