Public Attention Alert: How Yelp Handles a Public Problem

If you’re a devoted reader of this blog, the above statement from Yelp might seem a bit familiar, as it shares a fair amount of DNA with the Unusual Activity Alert, another of Yelp’s handful of Consumer Alerts. But it should be clear whether you’ve read our Suspicious Activity Alert post or read just the blurb above, there is a stark difference between the two alerts.

A Suspicious Activity Alert is engaged when a business receives attention from the news (or online in memes, as the Buffalo Wild Wings and Beans saga taught us), resulting in illegitimate reviews in response. Think back to the Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference for another example, wherein the humble landscaper was subject to political vitriol as well as good clean fun, in the form of countless phony reviews. Those reviews can affect a businesses bottom line, as well as the consumer’s trust in Yelp as a platform, so it’s in Yelp’s best interest to monitor situations like these and filter out the fakes.

A Public Attention Alert follows along the same path, but the key difference is that the business is receiving attention for being affiliated with someone accused of, or the target of, racist acts. In rare cases, where the accused racism is overt and egregious, Yelp will place a Business Accused of Racist Behavior Alert, and include a link to a news article from a credible source.

Why this Alert is Important

The Buffalo Wild Wings and Beans story, while funny and irreverent, can still affect that location’s business. But, if we’re being honest, probably not that much. For those people who don’t catch onto the joke, few are going to turn their noses up at BWW for not serving beans, since wings is what they’re really after.

But when a business is accused of being affiliated with racism, that can tarnish their image with great speed. Like it has here:

The Public Attention Alert at the top of this post is from the Pho House’s Yelp page. Even with the alert their page features a slew of harsh reviews, the result of an area Facebook page claiming that the business is owned by a man charged in the shooting a 6 year old boy.

According to this article from the Detroit Free Press, the restaurant has attempted to make it clear that the man is not the owner, and simply worked at the restaurant in 2015. But news spreads fast on social media, and less so when it is actually from the news.

Again, even with the alert disabling users from posting new reviews, the most recent reviews look like this:

Not even a star for the server, huh?

As you can see, these reviews are passionate, fueled by legitimate anger at a society in which violence and racism is all too commonplace. But these judgements are rushed, based off information from a Facebook post. And a business is suffering for it, at least until Yelp finishes investigating and cleans away or confirms the validity of these reviews.

The Bigger Picture

Say what you will about Cancel Culture, but it’s not something that’s going away. And by and large, it’s the result of a frustrated body public demanding accountability, demanding progress, pushing away toxic thoughts and behavior.

But because we are all so frustrated with so many daily atrocities, we make snap judgements. We tie a restaurant to a man who worked there six years ago, dragging them through the mud as we do it. We bombard a landscaping company, laughing away at the insanity. We leave sometimes fun, sometimes fierce, sometimes phony reviews.

Here’s a stat from that Detroit Free Press piece:

According to Yelp's Safety and Trust report 2020, the site reported a more than 200% increase in "media-fueled" alerts from 2019.

I won’t make anyone connect the same dots that I am. Technology and the way we communicate is as much to blame as is the socio-political climate of the last 5-10 years.

We see news fast, even though it might not always be “news.” And we react fast, accordingly.

Matt Friedman, co-founder of Tanner Friedman Strategic Communications, is quoted in the article and describes the issue in chillingly detail:

“This is a symptom of what we are seeing in the widest possible range of conflicts from the Middle East, which has been going on thousands of years, to a local crime news story to everything in between. It's communication, information and education by meme.”

“As a consumer, when you are on social media and see something from someone you know, like and trust, your tendency is to believe it even if it's not true. Your tendency is to often share it if it strikes an emotional chord whether or not it’s true.”

“It's right in front of them. It's on their phone. It's something not overheard at the grocery store anymore. It's possession in your hand.”

I know, that’s a lot of copy/paste. I’m not lazy, but I’m not a journalist, either, and this is worth it for you to read and absorb.

A few bogus reviews might not seem like a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but they might just be representative of a larger problem.

That’s a lot to chew on.