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Comment by stepitup | Hacker News Reader

What's really strange is that I bet a good percente of the people reading this comment will know exactly what I mean when I refer to a: "Startup that employs mafia tactics and forces businesses to pay a protection fee, or actively fucks them up and attempts to hurt them."

Why aren't the authorities going over the ACTUAL, honest-to-god mafia startup? Sorry, I realize it's off topic here, but my first thought when I read "Justice Dept begins criminal probe" -- was FINALLY!

We all know which company I'm referring to. And all I said was "employs mafia tactics and forces businesses to pay a protection fee, or actively fucks them up and attempts to hurt them". There's only one company like that in our "community". Why are they allowed to behave that way with immunity?

(Sorry to hijack this thread. Also, I have no disclaimer to make and am not associated with either company.)

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Yelp allegedly--and while I believe it it has not been established--burying positive reviews for non-advertisers isn't a crime (in the general case; your jurisdiction may disagree, but extortion etc. are, to my layman understanding, almost strictly limited to threats of violence). On the other hand, Uber is, if the allegations are true (and they've copped to Grayball), obstructing justice on behalf of third parties. This is an actual crime.

If you believe that Yelp should be barred from preferential reviewing in your jurisdiction, talk to a legislator. (I would agree with you and vote to that effect in my own.)

> Why aren't the authorities going over the ACTUAL, honest-to-god mafia startup?

One possibility is that their competitors don't have friends in very high places. Uber is stinky but as you point out hardly the stinkiest. But Uber clearly has very powerful enemies.

Can't wait until Nextdoor replaces Yelp. It's only a matter of time.

I dunno, I use both and most of the time I need restaurant reviews it isn't in my neighborhood.

That being said, I rarely bother opening yelp since I'm usually on Google maps in the first place and in my area they have plenty of reviews.

haha not likely, i know people that work there.

Why do you say it's not likely?

It's not that easy... For extortion, the punishment you're threatening someone with also needs to be illegal. For example: "Pay me 100$ or I'm going to tell all my friends how bad your food is" isn't extortion.

I'm not sure about the actual situation with Yelp, but as long as they're not making up negative reviews (which could be slander), it might be ok, legally. Given their size in that market, anti-trust concerns might come into play, though.

If Yelp is the company you're referring to, can you provide links or go into more detail?

Sure:

https://www.google.com/search?q=yelp+mafia

I'm guessing you're referring to google over the Hugo Barra incident? Not a big fan of google for using open source as purely a PR stunt and not releasing gmail as open source but I don't think Google forces anyone to pay a protection fee though.

I don't think Google is so bad. They're just doing what's good for their investors.

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