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.
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...
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.
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.I think there was a hit Fleetwood Mac song about that strategy, or maybe it was Marvin Gaye.
Why don't you just be honest and admit the real reason for this contrived change in policy and message was to drive attention towards YELP. It is nothing more than a publicity stunt leveraging the current state of unrest.
From the number of comments on this site, it worked.