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Yelp becomes weapon in online political war | TheHill

posted onJuly 2, 2018
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Article snippet: Yelp is becoming a surprising weapon in the online war between liberal activists and those on the right. Both sides are increasingly using the website to score points in a number of political and cultural controversies. The most recent incident came after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was denied service at The Red Hen, a restaurant in Lexington, Va., because of the Trump administration's immigration policies. Appalled conservatives quickly flocked to Yelp, a website which allows the public to comment and rate businesses, and overwhelmed the restaurant's page with negative reviews. Some online trolls even posted swastikas and pornography to deface the page. The restaurant’s rating took a serious hit, dropping from just under five stars all the way down to its current one-star rating. Conservative personality Charlie Kirk also seized on the controversy, urging his over 600,000 Twitter followers to leave “another 100,000 [negative] reviews” on The Red Hen’s page. Earlier this month, right-wing activists took similar action against MXDC, a Mexican restaurant in Washington D.C. Protesters opposing the Trump administration's policy separating children caught crossing the border illegally confronted Homeland Security Secretary MORE, who was dining at the restaurant. The protesters chanted slogans until Nielsen eventually left. The confrontation was caught on camera and quickly went viral. The online anger spilled over from Yelp to similar sites, su... Link to the full article to read more

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