By now you've heard the story of the American dentist from Minnesota, Walter J. Palmer, who paid at least $50,000 to hunt a lion in Zimbabwe. It turns out the lion that was lured and trapped was beloved and part of a research study. This story unleashed a torrent of anger online. The internet is angry!
So angry folks took out their frustrations on the dentist's Yelp business page. And it's taking a beating. Yelp is actively filtering thousands of Yelp reviews on that business page, attempting to separate the business from its owner's private activity. And Yelp can't keep up. There have been over 6,200 reviews posted, as well as photos of lions and bloody hands. Yelp has already filtered out an additional 5,748 reviews. The Yelp page is a solid 1-star, and will likely always be that way.
I needed a tooth extracted, so Dr. Palmer shot me in the neck with a crossbow, chased and tracked me for 40 hours
-- Yelp review
We call this "Yelp-bombing". When someone at a business gets caught up in a controversy, like refusing to serve someone for being transgender or yelling at a table for their screaming child, it's in danger of a Yelp bomb. People on Reddit, Facebook or other large online community rally to take down the business, and in come the terrible reviews to the business' Yelp page.
Let's face it. Yelp isn't the appropriate place to express anger at a person's practices outside of his or her business. And sometimes not even for 1 person's behavior at a business. A business is not one person, it's everyone who works there. At a restaurant, it's numerous people. If Dr. Palmer were not the only dentist practicing at this location, it would hurt other dentists who share in the business. And if that were the case and Dr. Palmer left that business and another dentist took his place, the Yelp page for the business would never recover. Game over.
The dentist's office is currently closed while angry tide is high. In addition, the office's website is having trouble keeping up with web traffic, and its Facebook page is unavailable, likely also due to Facebook not wanting to deal with the comments incoming.