Yelp has made a highly risky and extremely optimistic gambit: the company announced that it will deploy a feature by which users can report companies for not following covid-19 security protocols, which will be reflected in the notifications on the page of the company. Will people prove to be measured as arbitrators of justice? Yelp tests a troubled population.
Yelp announced the change today at Press release noting that “multiple user responses” from connected Yelpers are needed for a company to have an orange question mark, noting that “social distancing may not be applied according to most users” and / or “staff may not wearing masks according to most users. ”(Really flagrant offenders could have both orange marks of shame.) Conversely, if there are enough customers congratulating a restaurant for doing well, the company can get up to two ecological checks stating: “Social distancing is applied according to the majority of users” and / or “staff wear masks according to the majority of users”.
The obvious immediate observation is that it seems perfectly designed to facilitate personal online sales. But again, this is not entirely different from what Yelp has always been.
Yelp is not completely blind to this situation. “To prevent people from playing on the system, we did not disclose the number of responses needed,” a Yelp spokesman said in a statement shared with Gizmodo. The company said it has “implemented advanced technology” to prevent possible abuses, but the operation of that technology remains a mystery.
The feature makes us wonder if Yelp has seen too many complaints from companies boasting covid-19 rules. Until now, the company seemed to prioritize the protection of harmful companies reviews related to covid-19 i companies allowed to report their own safety precautions and social distance options. But those were the early days, when not everyone appreciated that employers were as messy as customers they carry his lack of a mask as a badge of honor anyway.
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Yelp continues to implement the feature, which is now only shown in a few hundred companies. Even if this gets out of hand, Yelp’s faith in us is deeply inspiring.