Proactive measures led to the removal of over 47,900 inappropriate reviews and the closure of over 551,200 user accounts for policy violations
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Yelp’s automated recommendation software
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Approximately 21 million reviews were contributed to
Yelp in 2024.1- Of these reviews, about 78% were recommended by Yelp’s automated recommendation software, which helps surface the most helpful and reliable content to consumers. Additionally, 18% were not recommended, 3% were removed by Yelp’s User Operations team, and 2% were self-removed by reviewers.2
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In 2024,
Yelp enhanced its automated recommendation software to better identify and not recommend reviews that were potentially generated by AI tools, lacking details about the consumer experience, or solicited.
Yelp’s User Operations team maintains content integrity
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Yelp relies on consumers and business owners to report reviews they believe violate its policies. In 2024,Yelp removed over 185,100 reported reviews, with 26% not reflecting firsthand consumer experiences.3 -
More than 47,900 reviews containing inappropriate content were removed by Yelp’s User Operations team through proactive and reactive measures.3
- Of these, the team evaluated and removed over 24,500 reviews after large language models proactively flagged them for potential hate speech, lewd language, or threats.3
- More than 551,200 user accounts were closed for violating Yelp’s Terms of Service.4 These closures were largely due to an influx in airline phone support scams, which Yelp’s User Operations team quickly identified and mitigated.
- More than 39,200 potential new business pages were rejected by Yelp’s User Operations team for being associated with spammy behaviors.5
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Yelp removed 1,040 business pages linked to deceitful lead generators, who were caught attempting to create fake business pages to generate leads and auction them to contractors.6 - More than 2.9 million photos were removed for violating Yelp’s policies—up 159% from 2023—primarily driven by photos being uploaded with text to promote fake customer support numbers and other spam intended to mislead consumers.6
Mitigating compensated and incentivized reviews
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The company introduced a new Consumer Alerts History section to
Yelp business pages that lists the business's past Compensated Activity Alerts, Suspicious Review Activity Alerts, and Questionable Legal Threat Alerts, accessible via a link below the recommended reviews on desktop.7 -
Yelp placed 120 Compensated Activity Alerts on business pages after receiving evidence of someone offering payment or other incentives in exchange for writing, changing, preventing, or removing reviews.6 -
Yelp placed 427 Suspicious Review Activity Alerts on business pages after detecting a large number of suspicious positive reviews coming from a single IP address, or reviews from users who may be connected to a group that coordinates the buying or selling of online reviews.6- Over 1,300 user accounts were closed for being associated with review exchange rings or other suspicious review activity.5
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Yelp made over 920 reports to other online platforms—like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Reddit—to warn them of content from more than 765 suspicious groups, posts, or individuals found on their sites attempting to trade or pay for reviews.6- Only 37% of Yelp’s reports resulted in action being taken by these other platforms to remove the deceptive content.6
Moderating
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As part of Yelp’s broader Consumer Alerts program, 920 Media Attention Alerts were placed on
Yelp pages related to a business gaining public attention, resulting in the removal of more than 56,900 reviews.3- Of these alerts, 60% stemmed from review activity related to social media posts in 2024, which resulted in the removal of more than 41,500 reviews.3
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Incidents related to politics or political figures saw a 96% year-over-year increase in Unusual Activity Alerts on
Yelp pages, as well as the removal of over 14,700 reviews.3
Protecting consumers from abuse of the legal system
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At times, legal demands can be used to silence reviewers, which is why
Yelp often objects to them when they seek personal user account information. In 2024,Yelp avoided producing personal information related to 98% of user accounts that were the subject of legal demands from law enforcement, government agencies, and private parties.3 -
Yelp placed 16 Questionable Legal Threat Alerts on business pages after receiving evidence that a business may be abusing the legal system.3- Of these alerts, 81% stemmed from gag clauses, or contractual terms that attempt to prohibit customers from posting feedback about goods or services.3
For more information, read Yelp’s 2024 Trust & Safety Report and view assets and images from the report here. Also released today,
1 Data is sourced globally as of
2 Reviews removed by Yelp’s User Operations team or reviews removed as a result of account closures for content policy violations.
3 Data is sourced from the
4 Data is sourced globally. These account closures stem from both user reports and proactive investigations. When an account is closed due to suspected deceptive or abusive behaviors, the associated reviews are removed as well.
5 Data is sourced from the
6 Data is sourced globally.
7 Consumer Alerts History is available on desktop as of
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