Human beings have certainly been the smartest species in the world’s history, but even with all that substance in their bag, they have failed rather sensationally at not making mistakes. This dynamic has already popped up on the surface quite a few times throughout our history, with each of these appearances practically forcing us to look for a defensive cover. To the world’s credit, we will find just the right answer here once we bring dedicated regulatory bodies into the fold. Having well-defined authorities across each and every area was a game-changer, as it instantly concealed a lot of our errors. However, the utopia to emerge from the stated development will die down soon, and if we are willing to be honest for a second, it was all technology’s fault. You see, the moment technology and its layered nature took over the scene; it gave people an unprecedented chance at fulfilling their ulterior motives, while having to face no consequences whatsoever for doing so. Such a dynamic will end up overwhelming over governing forces, thus sending them back to the drawing board. Fortunately, though, we are going to see a comeback on the horizon sooner rather than later. In fact, this comeback has become more and more apparent over the recent past, and Yelp’s latest move should only solidify it further.
As a cascading effect from the reversal of Roe V. Wade, Yelp has officially decided to start flagging crisis pregnancy centres so that the users are better able to distinguish them from abortion clinics. According to a report by Axios, the platform will now put a special notice above every faith-based and non-faith-based crisis center with a granular intention to educate users about how these centers “typically provide limited medical services and may not have licensed medical professionals onsite.” The move is, of course, supposed to stop such centers from acting as proper clinics, and consequentially, misleading people who want an abortion. Interestingly enough, this isn’t Yelp’s first attempt at solving the stated conundrum. Since 2018, the company has recategorized ‘thousands” of business listings that were designed to get abortion-seekers into these fake clinics only to discourage them from pursuing the relevant procedure.
“Crisis pregnancy centers do not offer abortion services, and it’s been shown that many provide misleading information in an attempt to steer people seeking abortion care to other options,” said Noorie Malik, Yelp’s vice president of user operations. “With this new consumer notice we’re aiming to further protect consumers from the potential of being misled or confused.”
Even though Super Court’s decision regarding abortions was pretty complicated in its own right, the presence of Big Tech has only added more layers to it. Just a short while ago, we saw Google coming under fire for similar misinformation issues. Beyond misinformation, the discussion about data privacy has also reached another reached level. Hence, amidst the entire hullabaloo, Yelp’s decision very much seems like a step in the right direction.