Unfortunately, due to Yelp’s unforgiving structure, this negative review continues to appear immediately below my client’s website on every Google search. Unfortunately, the many glowing reviews remain buried in the black abyss. According to Dale Landrith, chief strategist at Dream Local, a Rockland-based digital marketing company; this happens about 20% of the time with YELP reviews and appears to be a flaw in the sites algorithms and filtering system.
Although a brief cease and desist letter from a lawyer would seem to be the most direct path to relief, in fact, this tactic may well backfire by pushing the disgruntled reviewer to retaliate with more and more hostile reviews online. Additionally, existing federal laws give sites like Yelp virtual immunity from liability for such postings and make their removal extremely difficult. In fact, only in cases where the content of the post is patently false, for example, you are a bike shop and the review is about your awful pizza, can an aggrieved business owner flag it on Yelp so that the let’s eliminate Other than that, as long as the review is not profane, threatening, or false, anyone can post a review.
According to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (a common name for Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996) is a landmark piece of Internet legislation in the United States, codified at 47 USC § 230. Section 230 (c)(1) provides immunity from liability for providers and users of an “interactive computer service” who post information provided by others: No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.
* WHAT RESOURCES DOES THE ENTREPRENEUR HAVE?
If you haven’t already done so, the first thing you need to do is “claim” your business listing. Then reply to everybody reviews, both positive and negative. By responding, you can clarify miscommunication if that was part of the problem, report policy changes if that fixes things for future customers, and demonstrate that you are customer service oriented and responsive.
It is absolutely crucial to respond to negative reviews in a conciliatory manner, choosing your words carefully and thanking them for their review. By doing so, you have the opportunity to reduce these bad reviews, increase the positive ones, and do a bit of marketing all at the same time.
I hope this gives you an idea of what the legal community can and cannot do about the wild world of the digital age. There’s a jungle out there-
-Andy
* BE VIGILANT, BE PROACTIVE
