Yelp announced that it has entered into an agreement with the federal government to enable federal agencies and offices to claim their Yelp pages, read, and respond to reviews.
That includes the TSA:
“We encourage Yelpers to review any of the thousands of agency field offices, TSA checkpoints, national parks, Social Security Administration offices, landmarks and other places already listed on Yelp if you have good or bad feedback to share about your experiences,” says Yelp’s Laurent Crenshaw. “Not only is it helpful to others who are looking for information on these services, but you can actually make an impact by sharing your feedback directly with the source.”
“It’s clear Washington is eager to engage with people directly through social media,” Crenshaw adds. “Earlier this year a group of 46 lawmakers called for the creation of a ‘Yelp for Government’ in order to boost transparency and accountability, and Representative Ron Kind reiterated this call in a letter to the General Services Administration (GSA). Luckily for them, there’s no need to create a new platform now that government agencies can engage directly on Yelp.”
The government agreement will continue to roll out over the coming months.
Yelp considers this all pat of its broader “Consumer Protection Initiative,” which also encompasses its recent announcement about using health care data from ProPublica as well as its efforts to show restaurant health scores.
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