Yelp Reviews: The New Frontier of Free Speech

Note to Self

WNYC Studios

Self-improvement, Tech, Note, Npr, Education, Public, Wnyc, Manoush, York, To, New, Self, Radio, Business, Technology, Relationships, City, Society & Culture, Zomorodi, Newtechcity

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2014

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It's getting risky out there in the comment section.

This week on New Tech City we bring you a cautionary tale of e-commerce, fine print, and the drastic measures some online retailers will take to protect their reputations, even at the expense of consumers. In part two of our podcast, we explore how a court case over bad Yelp reviews might affect much wider online free speech. It gets extreme. It gets ugly. And it's going to keep happening as the reputation economy keeps growing.

The issue is this: Retailers get nailed by a bad review. Sometimes it's honest, sometimes it's exaggerated, and sometimes the bad review is flat out false and defamatory. But either way, it hurts business. So retailers are trying various ways to stop the reviews from happening: from unfounded financial fees, to extreme copyright claims about the very right to post a review about an experience, to totally justifiable defamation lawsuits.

This is part 1, the thrills and dangers of rating a company, of a two part series. Part 2, the secret ratings companies keep on customers, is here.

If you like these kinds of stories, why not subscribe to the podcast or follow us on Twitter.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, friend. This is an episode of Note to Self, but from when we used to be called New Text City.
0:06.6	Same good content. Just the old name. Enjoy.
0:10.0	This is New Text City, the show about how technology is changing the way we live.
0:14.6	I'm your host, Manouche Zomorodi, and this week a cautionary tale.
0:19.6	It's about online shopping, the fine print, and the drastic measures businesses feel they need to take.
0:26.4	Some businesses anyway to protect their reputations.
0:29.8	One customer reported getting a demand for several hundred dollars simply for contacting the company.
0:37.2	We're shifting to a reputation economy where a few bad comments can break an honest business.
0:43.4	But on the other hand, also Stymie a scammer.
0:47.4	One of the rights is the right to free speech and the right to speak anonymously.
0:52.4	The other right is the right to protect your reputation.
0:56.2	We've got an extreme case of one failed method of protecting a reputation.
1:01.7	Trust me, we'd all like to avoid what happened to this woman after she left an online review.
1:07.8	So we went the next three weeks without heat.
1:10.4	Next week we'll talk about what happens when companies rate you.
1:14.2	This week come along for the story of Jen Palmer and her scathing $3,500 comment plus the carpet cleaner who had enough with Yelp.
1:23.8	It's Newtix City.
1:27.4	Okay, so Newtix City producer Alex Goldmark is here with me. Hello Alex.
1:30.8	I'm an ouch.
1:31.6	Alex, you are the one who found Jen Palmer and our story starts with her.
1:36.4	So let's get to know Jen Palmer.
1:37.8	Okay.
	...

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