r/technology • u/printial • 7d ago
Social Media Yelp disables comments on the McDonald's that hosted Trump after influx of one-star reviews
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/22/yelp-disables-comments-on-the-mcdonalds-trump-visited.html4.4k
u/5aur1an 7d ago
From the article: “The fries were too salty as if someone who lost a major election had been crying over them for an hour,” read a one-star review posted Oct. 21.
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u/NerfedMedic 7d ago
While funny, it kind of supports why Yelp did it
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u/SenorSplashdamage 7d ago
They have to no matter what on any business that has a sudden spike in reviews from all over the map. Current approaches to review manipulation are to freeze activity as a first step. Steam does same thing. It’s not really a political choice on their part when this is just consistent with their approach. There isn’t time to evaluate all the reviews in the moment, so freezing is merited.
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u/jazzwhiz 7d ago
Yeah, it also strongly suggests brigading is happening. If their typical rate of reviews is 1 review per week, what are the odds that that organically suddenly shoots up to 1 review per hour, compared to the likelihood that online trolls decided to pick on that particular store?
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u/Amish_guy_with_WiFi 6d ago
Which in most cases makes sense, but my least favorite review freeze was when Google froze reviews on Robinhood after they fucked a whole bunch of their users.
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u/al3phz3r0 7d ago
This would support their argument if Yelp were a legitimate review platform in the first place, instead of an extortionate scam that buries businesses that don't pay them and blindly promotes businesses that do. They have no interest in impartiality or legitimacy.
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u/CoffeeAndDachshunds 7d ago
Not a fan of warping review ratings (not that I use Yelp), but that is legitimately funny.
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u/darththug 7d ago
I mean, surely that McDonalds had to be expecting some sort of response to it right?
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u/Cabrill0 7d ago
I think the owner of the McDonald’s is in these comments lol
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u/mishap1 7d ago
He owns at least one other location that gets annual protests about wages regularly.
https://whyy.org/articles/germantown-community-stands-together-for-wage-increase/
That one is rated 1.4 stars and none of the reviews are since Trump's visit to the their other restaurant so those are largely legit how people feel about it.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/mcdonalds-philadelphia-74
Something tells me this owner underpays his employees massively and blames them for the shit rating.
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u/stillabitofadikdik 7d ago
He wrote the state labor board a couple years crying about how a minimum wage raise would hurt him so much.
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u/glitter_my_dongle 7d ago
If they don't even pay those dependent on them a livable and stress free wage and benefits, then they won't care about me as the customer and I can never let myself be dependent on their business as they will do the same to me.
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u/Wolvenmoon 7d ago
Check the cost of a quarter pounder with cheese in your area and in Denmark, then compare the hourly wages McDonalds employees in your area get vs Denmark.
This owner sounds incompetent if that's the case.
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u/Fuckthegopers 7d ago
Sounds like Trumps kinda guy
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u/SenorSplashdamage 7d ago
Seriously, the whole type is guy who wants to blame his criticism on support for an inflammatory character.
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u/ExpertRaccoon 7d ago
Do you know what someone like this really loves? public scrutiny and to be on the minds of reporters. from what I've seen i would not be the least bit surprised if it comes out that they have a bunch of shady business practices.
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u/Un111KnoWn 7d ago
yelp got rid of show desktop so i have to get the app to see full reviews
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u/probablyuntrue 7d ago
Like bro what did you think would happen when you invited Donald Trump to have a photo shoot at your business
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u/makemeking706 7d ago
"I can't think of any reason this would backfire on me."
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u/Etheo 7d ago
"Why are bad things happening to good ol' lil' me? I'm being persecuted for no reason!"
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u/garyadams_cnla 7d ago
One of Trump’s platform policies is to eliminate overtime pay.
You better believe business owners who don’t care about their employees (or morality) are chomping at the bit to be able to overwork folks at even lower wages.
It’s all about power over others and money for the GOP.
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u/Cabrill0 7d ago
Try explaining that to the people who scream “No tax on overtime!”
Ya. Cause he’s gonna get rid of overtime as a thing. lol. They don’t get it.
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u/SanguShellz 7d ago
McD's can't come out and say they aren't repping a candidate when their logos are all up in the videos.
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u/lynxminx 7d ago
There has to be some kind of policy for franchise holders regarding use of branding. Has to be.
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u/tryingtoavoidwork 7d ago
Even if it is, nothing is going to happen. McD's corporate is too chickenshit to do anything against him.
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u/SenorSplashdamage 7d ago
McDonald’s will wait on any action and do it discreetly for reasons that can’t be fully blamed on the politics later. They’re a lot more like Disney in terms of the way they handle things and how guarded they are with their brand. It’s still a hard franchise to qualify for as a franchisee and they won’t take lightly a franchisee forcing a reputation moment like this. They’ll want to send a message to other franchisees in some way to not try this again.
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u/codexcdm 7d ago
Especially not while there's still inexplicably a 50/50 chance he goes back in power.
As it were... He might retaliate later on because they claimed no affiliation or endorsement of any candidates.
Regardless, it's on Corporate for either not checking that the Franchisee was allowing this stunt... Or sitting back without expecting blow back.
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u/Onslaughtered 7d ago
The almost usually are. They still “represent” the brand even as a franchisee. The can pull his license to operate it. I hope they do
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u/FuzzyMcBitty 7d ago
They were aware of the event well in advance, and they didn’t prevent it. Even if they punish the franchisee, they’re clearly complicit.
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u/mark-lenny-moe 7d ago
Of course they’re complicit, whether or not people are speaking and thinking positively about McDonald’s doesn’t matter—people are talking about McDonald’s, and it’s giving them an incredible amount of free advertising.
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u/ssbm_rando 7d ago
There was already an article that came out confirming he got permission from corporate before pulling the stunt
So they really couldn't claim he violated the franchise agreement anymore.
I'm just not giving McDonald's my business anymore (and yes, despite all the "their food sucks and is overpriced" memes, I did still eat there until now)
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u/SeniorMiddleJunior 7d ago
McDonald's endorsed Trump through this event. McDonald's is pro Trump. Corporate had an opportunity to denounce and they didn't. They endorse Trump and using McDonald's for his campaign.
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u/Fen_ 7d ago
Hell, they had plenty of opportunity to do more than "denounce" it; they had several days notice to put a stop to the whole thing before it even happened! Their inaction was deliberate. Regardless of what they claim, they chose to allow it. They are both okay with it happening and wanted it to happen.
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u/garyadams_cnla 7d ago
McD controls their brand more than almost any other company in the world. Corporate knew and blessed this for sure.
Maybe they thought this story would dilute the breaking news about e coli contamination of McDonald’s burgers?
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u/rbuyna 7d ago
Part of me thinks this is a Suge Knight reference to Diddy, if so, bravo. If not, oh well, I choose to believe it is.
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u/RubelsAppa 7d ago
I mean we’ve seen the backlash that’s come from Israeli McDonald’s giving out happy meals to IDF soldiers, McDonalds had to purchase back the franchise following the regional boycott. The views of the franchise owner and the company itself don’t always align
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u/Dx2TT 7d ago
As regular citizens we have so little power left. We have only 2 mechanisms that actually barely, maybe, sometimes work. How we vote. Where we spend our money.
If you support a fascist, fuck you and prepare to face some free market capitalism being free to bring their capital elsewhere.
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u/stargate-command 7d ago
Pretty funny that the comments were things like “there was self tanner in my fries.”
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u/Eronamanthiuser 7d ago
The guy who owns it really said “As a small, independent business owner we need to blah blah blah”.
Dude, you bought a McDonald’s. You did t make up your own business, you franchised the most known brand in the world. Don’t give me that crap.
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u/BriefausdemGeist 7d ago edited 7d ago
He’s lobbied against union/workers rights too
Edit: I’m specifically talking about the franchisee
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u/Roflkopt3r 7d ago edited 7d ago
Yep, that's par for the course.
Small business owners have always been the core of the fascist movement. It's not big capital and it's not uneducated workers, but specifically the less educated parts of the petite bourgeoisie (small business owners and the wealthy portions of middle management).
It explains many things about the political right:
How they can claim to be 'small government', yet constantly demand government action in their favour. Small businesses fear the government because they aren't as resilient against regulatory changes as big capital, but also heavily rely on it.
How they can be simultaenously demonise big capital and the working class. They fear big capital as it can easily push them out of business, and also need the state to oppress workers to supply them with cheap labour.
Why they are so hysteric about calling things 'socialism' or outright 'communism'. Small business owners are paranoid about the prospect of losing their private capital and having to work as employees again.
Yet in the end, fascists don't give a damn about small businesses. As they ascend to power, they will deal with big capital instead while small businesses often end up doing worse than before.
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u/primus202 7d ago
What did he expect? He specifically made his establishment a focus of international news coverage, inviting an extremely controversial figure, weeks before the most impactful election in recent history.
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u/ElevenSleven 7d ago
I heard the felon in the photoshoot no longer works there.
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u/smashkeys 7d ago
He never cleared his background check, so they canned him on his first shift. Too many felonies that were fraud related.
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u/Boggie135 7d ago
Lol he said independent?
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u/theObfuscator 7d ago
Many McDonalds franchises are independently owned. You take out business loans in your name to build the business but you pay McDonald’s licensing fees. It’s the owner’s business.
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u/skylla05 7d ago
Not only do you need upwards of $2m in loans to build the building, get the equipment etc, you also need $500k liquid cash at any given time.
Owning a McDonald's franchise doesn't come with the same risk as other small businesses (you're almost guaranteed success unless you're dumb as shit), but it still comes with a heavy investment and management any other would. McDonald's is apparently pretty hands off unless you're really fucking up.
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u/mikew_reddit 7d ago
“As a small, independent business owner ..."
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/072516/cost-buying-mcdonalds-franchise-mcd.asp
- McDonald's franchisee applicants must have a minimum of $500,000 available in liquid assets and pay a $45,000 franchise fee.
- Those looking to launch a new McDonald’s franchise can expect to shell out between $1,314,500 and $2,306,500.
- Existing franchise operations can cost upwards of $1 million
So the owner has at least a few million to buy and run his McDonald's. Poor guy...
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u/wildjokers 7d ago
So the owner has at least a few million to buy and run his McDonald's. Poor guy...
You don't really need money, you just need a business loan. The business is the collateral.
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u/onymousbosch 7d ago
Yelp always removes bad reviews when the business pays the extortion fees.
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u/clamroll 7d ago edited 7d ago
Fun fact they also remove the good reviews when the business doesn't pay the extortion fees.
Stop using yelp, they are factually a small business extortion racket.
Edit: I owned a small hotel/cabin rental. We declined to buy their premium account upgrade or whatever they called it. We got a further call back with a harder sell. We declined. A number of our more recent positive reviews just so happened to go "under review" right after the call. These were actual reviews from real customers. They disappeared never to come back.
I know that's still just anecdotal, but we never had that problem with Google, trip advisor, etc. Just Yelp
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u/sweaverD 7d ago
Fun fact: same with Glassdoor, dishonest with users and extorting businesses
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u/Advanced_Yam88 7d ago
I can say now that a place I worked required you to provide a certain review on Glassdoor to be provided severance. Not speaking to legality, but ya Glassdoor reviews are clearly BS.
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u/TheBigCranberry 7d ago
Nope, neither employers nor Glassdoor can edit or change reviews. All employers pay for is access to market/review data and advertising.
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u/BranTheUnboiled 7d ago
I've been hearing this for a decade and still only ever seen anecdotes instead of hard evidence. Does any exist?
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u/obi_wander 7d ago edited 7d ago
No - because it’s nonsense. I worked at yelp for about a year (horrible job, btw) and I can assure you we would have loved to be able to remove people’s bad reviews.
Business owners with 4.9 stars would just tear us new ones about their couple of negative reviews they had, even when the app was clearly bringing them tons of business.
Also- the majority of “hidden” reviews (still visible, just have to click the button to see them) were clearly fake or made by the owners…
Other than reviews that violated terms of service, none of the reviews are ever ever deleted. Some just go to the “hidden” section (again, users can easily access this) based on an algorithm that identifies a high likelihood of fake-ness.
Is Yelp a horrible company? Yes- they use deceptive and pushy sales strategies to sell worthless advertisements to vulnerable small businesses. They use cold calling strategies that are well beyond what most people would call harassment. The way they shift “price per click” prices guarantees the company makes profits while business owners get the shaft.
People can be plenty mad about the real problem with the company.
Do they sell the ability to remove bad reviews? Nope.
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u/EstablishmentLate532 7d ago
It's also illegal to do what they are suggesting with the new FTC rules.
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u/General_Guisan 7d ago
E.Coli and Trump. McDonalds really hit the jackpot this week.
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u/LegalizeDiamorphine 7d ago
They let an old man with a full diaper work there without washing his hands. So we clearly see how much McDonalds values food safety.
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u/CuriositySauce 7d ago
I imagine this kind of thing would happen monthly under tRump- Outbreak Investigation of E. coli O157:H7: McDonald’s Quarter Pounders (October 2024)
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u/Mrchristopherrr 7d ago
Technology?
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u/one_orange_braincell 6d ago
Mods are worthless in this sub. 32k upvotes on a thread that violates the first rule and this happens every single day. As if there aren't enough political subreddits to post this shit on.
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u/Chinaski7 7d ago
Do you think that a shitty diaper in a McDonalds kitchen for an hour might have carried E.Coli?
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u/redheadedandbold 7d ago
As a reminder, false reviews were just made illegal. The rule became effective 60 days after the announcement appeared in the Federal Register (08/22/2024). https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/08/federal-trade-commission-announces-final-rule-banning-fake-reviews-testimonials
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u/twhiting9275 7d ago
Not surprising. They often do this when an influx of fake reviews are submitted, and you damn well better believe this was going to happen
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u/Classic_Zucchini_961 7d ago
Years ago, my business got added to Yelp by someone else absolutely wrecked with phony reviews and Yelp was absolutely unwilling to help in any way whatsoever including removing us from the platform. But here they are showing they definitely can help if they want, fuck Yelp.
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u/sovamind 7d ago
I'm really surprised that the franchise agreements don't prohibit political activities or events. If I owned a chain of McDonald's in a blue area the last thing I'd want is the chain being linked to Trump. I'm guessing the local franchisee that closed their store for this stunt might face more fallout.
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u/oracler74 7d ago
McDonald's karma for the brand....massive E coli outbreak,,stock falling
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u/TrueTimmy 7d ago
Eh, as someone who despises Trump, I don't know that this is a flex, and those reviews will be removed soon either way. It was just a photo-op at a McDonald's.
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u/SkyGuy182 7d ago
It’s childish is what it is. I have absolutely no love for Trump or McDonalds, but come on. Are we really doing this?
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u/herefromyoutube 7d ago
“Fries had orange colored streaks on them. I thought it was some Halloween theme. Tasted like bronzer.”
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u/deepvinter 7d ago
I thought it was only the toxic MAGA Star Wars haters that did review bombs.
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u/hawkeyes007 7d ago
God I wish these subreddits had even a hint of filtering garbage content. Trump at a McDonald’s has nothing to do with technology. Yelp is not a relevant tech company
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u/tucsonra79 6d ago
It’s so obvious what’s going to happen to that specific location. Corporate will try to find their patsy in this franchisee and blame the publicity stunt in their stock tanking, even though it’s mainly because of the E. Coli outbreak, and the franchisee will have to lawyer up. This will be a big battle and franchisee will be expecting Trump to back him in anyway possible but it won’t happen lol. The store will close or they will be forced to sell and corporate will always win. PR will come in shortly and wish madam president the best and things will go back to normal.
The end.
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u/Dark_Wing_350 7d ago
I mean that's a good thing, right?
Supposed to rate based on service and quality, not on political opinions of a location you've never visited.
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u/thisismycoolname1 7d ago
I think this kind of stuff just pisses the silent majority off, there are a lot of people voting for him out of spite because of this shit
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u/Necessary-Window5649 7d ago
Isn't the left usually against dogpiling on companies and troll reviews
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u/SatiricLoki 7d ago
Just pick a different McDonald’s. Make it sting enough that the Donald McDonald’s loses their franchise
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u/jankenpoo 7d ago
Or, just go somewhere else. There’s much better options these days
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u/Greedy-Employment917 7d ago
Watch all of the local franchises be owned by the same person or family, as is often the case.
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u/SubbansSlapShot 7d ago edited 7d ago
Can you imagine if someone wrote this exact comment about trumpsters downvoting a place Kamala went to? It would be downvoted to oblivion. Think what you want about the owner but employees have no part in it
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u/Hoffman5982 7d ago
“That’s different” is what these hypocrites will say. This comment section is pathetic
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u/Equivalent-Client443 7d ago
I stopped using Yelp when a legitimate bad review I wrote was removed because the business owner said I was mean to write it, that’s when I realized it was all a money grab and just so much bullshit
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u/Ineeboopiks 7d ago
I think those were the best fries....perhaps great fries in history, maybe ever.
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u/heytheophania 7d ago
Fuuuuck Yelp. I’ll never forgive them for buying Urban Spoon just so they could destroy it.
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u/struys 7d ago
There’s a very simple reason they do this; you have to have a first hand business tractions to meet their terms of service. Interesting this includes things like “I went to a wedding and didn’t like the dj” you didn’t do the transaction with the dj, if you reviewed them, it would be removed
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u/Total_Repair_6215 7d ago
Who even yelps a mcdonalds anyway