Oct 22, 2024
New York (CNN)  An influx of Yelp reviews many of them bogus of a Pennsylvania McDonalds that former President Donald Trump visited Sunday, led the review platform to temporarily freeze the franchises Yelp page.Many of the recent latest reviews were ruthless. Some called out Trump for his criminal record.Convicted felon sh*t-talking customers, especially women, did not wear gloves while preparing french fries, and only worked five minutes at a time before having to sit down or take a nap, one said.Others used the opportunity to take a different jab at the presidential candidate.The fries were too salty as if someone who lost a major election had been crying over them for an hour, one review said.Some users on Yelp blamed the McDonalds franchise for allowing Trump to host a campaign event there.If you make managerial decisions this bad I certainly am never going to eat anything you make, another review said.Still, some on Yelp shrugged off the Trump campaign event.Ive been to this MacDonalds long before Trump came by and Ill keep coming by long afterwards, one five-star review said.McDonalds was thrust into the political spotlight Sunday when Trump served fries at a Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania, location, even though the chain attempted to distance itself from the stunt. Vice President Kamala Harris says she briefly worked at the chain during the summer of 1983 when she was still a student at Howard University in Washington, a claim Trump refutes without evidence.Yelp will flag and temporarily disable reviews on businesses that have received increased public attention. In 2023, there were 986 total alerts placed on business pages related to the business receiving public attention, the company said. Its removed almost 50,000 reviews as a result of these alerts.While we dont take a stand one way or the other when it comes to this incident, weve temporarily disabled the posting of content to this page as we work to investigate whether the content you see here reflects actual consumer experiences rather than the recent events, a notice on the page said Tuesday.Yelp said the disabled reviews are temporary, and confirmed it disabled reviews Monday.When we see the activity dramatically decrease or stop, our moderators will clean up the page so reviews describing only firsthand consumer experiences are reflected, Noorie Malik, Yelps VP of User Operations, said in a statement Tuesday.Most of McDonalds locations are independently owned and operated, meaning that although franchise owners have to agree to certain guidelines, theyre more or less free to invite whomever they want to run the drive-through.On Sunday, McDonalds said in an internal memo to employees obtained by CNN that it did not invite Trump.As weve seen, our brand has been a fixture of conversation this election cycle. While weve not sought this, its a testament to how much McDonalds resonates with so many Americans, the company said in its memo. McDonalds does not endorse candidates for elected office and that remains true in this race for the next President. We are not red or blue we are golden.The company clarified in its memo that Derek Giacomantonio, the franchises owner and operator, was approached by local law enforcement about Trumps desire to visit and Giacomantonio accepted.He was proud to highlight how he and his team serve their local community and make delicious food, like our World-Famous French Fries, the company said. Upon learning of the former Presidents request, we approached it through the lens of one of our core values: we open our doors to everyone.WATCH | WRTV's latest headlines Latest Headlines | October 22, 11am
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