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Yeah this is a PR disaster. The choice of title and language used by Yelp is really poor.

Why didn't they just say: "We're going to lock reviews for x days when a business receives news or social media attention to prevent reviews from non-customers."

Twitter is full of people saying they've deleted the app, etc.

The page made it sound like that's a thing they already do. The new thing seems to be

> 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.

While this is not quite as abusable as other commenters have claimed, there is definitely still some potential for abuse given how imperfect journalism (like all things) is at always reporting facts.

This is my reading. By including a link to an outside article, they think they can lock things up to prevent a flamewar / flood of non-firsthand reviews. This seems like it will make everyone mad.