Yelp says it will now alert users to businesses who have been accused of racist behavior

• Yelp will now flag businesses that have been accused of "overt" racism as a warning to users.
• The "Business Accused of Racist Behavior Alert" will feature a red icon that will appear at the top of the page for the business and a news article would be linked to the accused businesses.
• The measure is in response to an increase in the number of reviews warning of racist behavior at local businesses in the past few months.

Yelp announced on Thursday that it would flag businesses that have been accused of "overt" racism as a warning to users.

"We're announcing a new consumer alert to stand against racism. In the last few months, we've seen that there is a clear need to warn consumers about businesses associated with egregious, racially-charged actions to help people make more informed spending decisions," the company said in a tweet.

The company said the "Business Accused of Racist Behavior Alert" will feature a red icon that will appear at the top of the page for the business, and a news article would be linked so users can "learn more."

"Communities have always turned to Yelp in reaction to current events at the local level. As the nation reckons with issues of systemic racism, we've seen in the last few months that there is a clear need to warn consumers about businesses associated with egregious, racially-charged actions to help people make more informed spending decisions," Noorie Malik, Yelp's vice president of user operations said in an announcement of the new policy.

The company said it saw an increase in the number of reviews warning of racist behavior at businesses in the last few months as the "nation reckons with issues of systemic racism."

Protests erupted across the US after George Floyd, a Black man, died after a police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes in Minnesota on May 25.