Yelp will be flagging business pages accused of racism with its new consumer alert as the company takes a “firm stance against racism.”
Announcing the news on its blog, Noorie Malik, VP of User Operations, explained that Yelp will place a “Business Accused of Racist Behavior Alert” on the pages of businesses that have received public attention for “reports of racist conduct, such as using racist language or symbols,” and will be factually supported by links to news articles related to the incident. The new alert is an extension of Yelp’s Public Attention Alert, which was initially introduced as a response to the #BlackLivesMatter movement, and will be used for businesses that are accused of “overtly racist actions.”
Yelp revealed that it has labeled over 450 alerts on business pages between May 26 and September 30, 2020 because they were either accused of or the target of racism in relation to BLM.
“At Yelp, we value diversity, inclusion and belonging, both internally and on our platform, which means we have a zero tolerance policy to racism. We know these values are important to our users and now more than ever, consumers are increasingly conscious of the types of businesses they patronize and support,” Malik wrote. He added, “Communities have always turned to Yelp in reaction to current events at the local level. 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.”
Elsewhere in tech, Apple is expected to introduce the iPhone 12 in its upcoming “Hi, Speed” event.
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