Protecting Restaurants from Botnet Manipulation of Online Reviews

In the Internet economy, restaurateurs, especially owners and operators of non-chain restaurants, are often at the mercy of users of review websites and applications such as Yelp and TripAdvisor and social media platforms such as Facebook. While such platforms can serve as a valuable source of free advertising and publicity for restaurants, they can also pose an existential threat to a restaurant’s survival.According to a 2017 conducted by Professor Michael Luca of Harvard Business School, non-chain restaurants with low or middling Yelp reviews were more likely to go out of business than those with positive Yelp reviews, as demonstrated by the fact that after San Francisco increased its minimum wage, restaurants with 3.5 star average ratings were 14 percent more likely to close, while those with five-star average ratings were no more likely to close. A 2016 study conducted by Professor Luca also found that a one-star increase in a non-chain restaurant’s Yelp rating aggregated…