Slashdot Mirror
8 Yelp Reviewers Hit With $1.2 Million Defamation Suits
New submitter goodboi writes: A Silicon Valley building contractor is suing 8 of its critics over the reviews they posted on Yelp. The negative reviews were filtered out by Yelp's secretive ranking system, but in court documents filed earlier this month, Link Corporation claims that the bad publicity cost over $165,000 in lost business.
I know we've all seen too many cases of companies trying to abuse Yelp reviewers to shut down criticism, but in this case they may have a point.
A number of the reviews are from accounts that have no other reviews, and use images from stock photo sites - attached to ethnically stereotypical names (Shlomo the Jew, Sassy the black woman, and Jenyu the Asian) complete with racist stereotypical stories - Shlomo's Jewishness was insulted, Sassy got CPS called on her, and Jenyu said in stereotyped Asian style "Plumber he work four days he finish, pipe make noise."
We might be smart enough to realize they're bullshit reviews at first glance, but we're not representative of the general public.
I wish I could sue those "image management" services that post fake positive reviews.
But what if it isn't? What if its 8 different honest reviews? Does their privacy get eviscerated because some corp has money for lawyers?
It sounds like he is pretty sure they are false, so yes, libel trumps privacy in this case. If the reviews are honest they can go to court and request to be dropped from the suit if named or provide proof to Yelp and ask not to be unmasked.My guess and TFA indicate he has agog idea who it is based on work he has done but needs Yelp to verify who did it prior to naming them.
And $8m for $165k damages? CA is a failed state.
Actual and punitive damages. He can ask but may not get anywhere near that number.
Personally, this sounds like a project that, for whatever reason, went south and rather than cut their losses one side decided to get revenge and is now finding out that may not have been a good idea.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
How can you tell? Just because the plaintiff says so? Some of those reviews look legit and yes a few look fake. I notice he doesn't complain about the obviously fake good reviews (how does a company in Cali get a positive review from a teen in New Jersey.)
I like how he got Yelp to remove EVERY bad review, and some of those are very obvioulsy not fake.
I know we all like to hate yelp but this guy really seems to be gaming the system.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
1. Freedom of speech is a government thing.
That rejoinder gets tossed around quite a bit. While it is technically true, it's misleading--the First Amendment (along with the rest of the Constitution) does inform the standards by which private conduct is judged.
The Supreme Court in Hepps decided that not only is truth an absolute defense to defamation*, but also that the burden is on the plaintiff to prove the defendant's statements are false (ie presumption of truth). This is contrary to old English common law (presumption of falsity) and a direct result of First Amendment protection.
For the same reason you have to prove actual malice in the case of a public figure (Sullivan), and are protected from foreign judgments that would be contrary to the 1st Amendment (2010 SPEECH Act).
Other amendments also have things to say about private conduct. In Shelley, SCOTUS applied the for-government-only 14th Amendment to racially restrictive property covenants. It may be a contract between two private parties, but enforcement of a contract or judgment is a government thing.
*Public interest/public figure, if we're being exact.
Nothing posted to
But it's obviously not. There are several bad reviews from real accounts (friends more then 1 review). He is hurting his case by lumping all of them together. Funny that he had yelp remove every bad review not just the suspect ones. But somehow he got a 5 star review from some kid in NJ, makes me think this guy has been buying a few good reviews.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
So those 8 may or may not be fake (one in particular looks to be a possibly valid review, but hard to know). Why were the other 9 removed as well. Funny that ALL his bad reviews were removed when only 8 are actionable. (but you know the obviously fake good review stays up. Hard for a California construction company to get a valid review from some kid in Princeton, NJ.)
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
There has to be some way to figure this problem out. It should be especially easy with restaurants since they all use software to track orders. Maybe something like a new Diners Club Card where the Restaurant/Server and Customer can rate each other based on real data. For instance if the customer complains about waiting too long the data should show when they were seated and ticket was opened and when the food was served. If the customer complains about the soup but didn't order it the customer's other reviews be suspect. If the customer claims the server was rude but that server otherwise gets great reviews then they should be suspect. If the restaurant owners could get that kind of feedback on which dishes/servers were liked or disliked it would help them as well. And if you present the card when you show up and you have a good reputation as a diner you could get higher ranked servers.
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.