Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Yelp Says It Will Mark Pages of Businesses Accused of Racist Conduct

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 34 posts

Re: Yelp Says It Will Mark Pages of Businesses Accused of Racist Conduct

#21

Post by mansion7 »

whimsicalism wrote: post #11
zepto wrote: post #9

Why would this not be the subject of a defamation suit?

Are review sites normally the target of such suits or is it the poster of the review? These would be linking to credible news outlets, so seems like the owner should take it up with them. My guess is it is hard to win a defamation suit against the lawyers for someone like the NYT.

Ah, so like Wikipedia they will launder their ideology through "credible news outlets".

"Don't blame us! A source with no proof and an axe to grind, told unverifiable gossip to an unaccountable journalist, who just happens to agree with us politically. But we're credible, so you're a racist now."

This is actually a good thing. Though the mainstream media has very little remaining credibility, Yelp will help eradicate the remaining shreds by further exposing the myth that media has built around itself; namely that they are unbiased, trustworthy purveyors of truth.

Re: Yelp Says It Will Mark Pages of Businesses Accused of Racist Conduct

#25

Post by whimsicalism »

mansion7 wrote: post #21
whimsicalism wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are review sites normally the target of such suits or is it the poster of the review? These would be linking to credible news outlets, so seems like the owner should take it up with them. My guess is it is hard to win a defamation suit against the lawyers for someone like the NYT.

Ah, so like Wikipedia they will launder their ideology through "credible news outlets". "Don't blame us! A source with no proof and an axe to grind, told unverifiable gossip to an unaccountable journalist, who just happens to agree with us politically. But we're credible, so you're a racist now." This is actually a good thing. Though the mainstream media has very little remaining credibility, Yelp will help eradicate…

Well, you are free to make consumer choices as you like. I appreciate Yelp surfacing relevant news articles about a business, but if you don't trust the news - you are free to continue patronizing.

I don't get why other choices by consumers upsets you so much?

Re: Yelp Says It Will Mark Pages of Businesses Accused of Racist Conduct

#26

Post by mansion7 »

whimsicalism wrote: post #25
mansion7 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, so like Wikipedia they will launder their ideology through "credible news outlets". "Don't blame us! A source with no proof and an axe to grind, told unverifiable gossip to an unaccountable journalist, who just happens to agree with us politically. But we're credible, so you're a racist now." This is actually a good thing. Though the mainstream media has very little remaining credibility, Yelp will help eradicate…

Well, you are free to make consumer choices as you like. I appreciate Yelp surfacing relevant news articles about a business, but if you don't trust the news - you are free to continue patronizing. I don't get why other choices by consumers upsets you so much?

I'm not upset, I like watching corrupt people and organizations expose themselves and each other.

Re: Yelp Says It Will Mark Pages of Businesses Accused of Racist Conduct

#27

Post by diego_moita »

Ain't it cool? Protection rackets are learning how to do PR and posing themselves as nice guys doing the right thing.

Yelp business model is basically taking the "influencers" game to scale mixed with the mafia "protection" service.

Remember when we were promised the "knowledge of the crowds"? Yelp, Putin and Facebook were smarter and gave us digitally manipulated lynch mobs instead. It seems far easier and more profitable to harness and manipulate ignorance than knowledge.

Re: Yelp Says It Will Mark Pages of Businesses Accused of Racist Conduct

#28

Post by _qwfv »

throwawaysea wrote: post #20

This feels like McCarthyism 2.0 and will be abused. I can see someone accusing a business then disagree with of racism even if their disagreement concerns unrelated matters (a lone incident of bad service, an unrelated political position from the owners, a refusal to grant a refund, whatever).

Wouldn't McCarthyism 2.0 be, for example, the ongoing efforts to stigmatize Communism and Socialism in the States? The administration recently banned visas for anyone affiliated with a Communist Party.

Socialism, meanwhile, is very much a dirty word in American politics. Biden and Warren, for instance, went to great lengths to distance themselves from 'Socialism'.

Yes, labeling a business as racist could be misused and is potentially very problematic, but it hardly rises to the level of McCarthyism.

Re: Yelp Says It Will Mark Pages of Businesses Accused of Racist Conduct

#29

Post by throwawaysea »

_qwfv wrote: post #28
throwawaysea wrote: post #20

This feels like McCarthyism 2.0 and will be abused. I can see someone accusing a business then disagree with of racism even if their disagreement concerns unrelated matters (a lone incident of bad service, an unrelated political position from the owners, a refusal to grant a refund, whatever).

Wouldn't McCarthyism 2.0 be, for example, the ongoing efforts to stigmatize Communism and Socialism in the States? The administration recently banned visas for anyone affiliated with a Communist Party. Socialism, meanwhile, is very much a dirty word in American politics. Biden and Warren, for instance, went to great lengths to distance themselves from 'Socialism'. Yes, labeling a business as racist could be misused a…

Modern cancel culture is McCarthyism, but widespread and at scale. There are numerous parallels - accusations without evidence, damaging impact without due process, changing definitions/goal posts, hyperbolic accusations, political repression, and the destruction of many careers. Labeling people with pejoratives is exactly the weapon used to silence opponents. Most typically I’ve seen it used against those that don’t align with progressive viewpoints, although that’s not always the case.

We’ve already seen the damage that cancel culture can do, and so Yelp giving random people a way to damage an individual or business without a principled process (like that of the courts) seems like a really messy and bad idea that’ll make cancel culture worse.

As for your notes on Communism - to me banning visas of those associated with such policies/parties seems reasonable. Marxism/collectivism is responsible for tens of millions of deaths in the 20th century and we have numerous data points showing that these ideas not only don’t work, but that their implementation requires brutal governance that is in conflict with our most basic principles, like free speech. So yes I do not welcome anyone affiliated with such parties into my country just as I would not welcome terrorists.

Re: Yelp Says It Will Mark Pages of Businesses Accused of Racist Conduct

#30

Post by _qwfv »

throwawaysea wrote: post #29
_qwfv wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't McCarthyism 2.0 be, for example, the ongoing efforts to stigmatize Communism and Socialism in the States? The administration recently banned visas for anyone affiliated with a Communist Party. Socialism, meanwhile, is very much a dirty word in American politics. Biden and Warren, for instance, went to great lengths to distance themselves from 'Socialism'. Yes, labeling a business as racist could be misused a…

Modern cancel culture is McCarthyism, but widespread and at scale. There are numerous parallels - accusations without evidence, damaging impact without due process, changing definitions/goal posts, hyperbolic accusations, political repression, and the destruction of many careers. Labeling people with pejoratives is exactly the weapon used to silence opponents. Most typically I’ve seen it used against those that don’t…

Ah, I see. Those are pretty radical stances. You just compared Marxists to terrorists, which is pretty far out there.

Are folks like David Harvey, Cornell West, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, etc., unwelcome in your hypothetical country?

Sounds like you are equally interested in "cancelling" ideologies, you just have a different set you'd disallow.

Post reply on HN