You can now use Yelp to report businesses that aren’t enforcing social distancing and mask use

• Businesses on Yelp will either receive a green check mark or orange question mark to indicate whether they are following COVID-19 guidelines.
• Multiple customers must report a business within 28 days for it to appear on the company’s page.
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Businesses that do not enforce social distancing or require their employees to wear masks can now be reported in a new Yelp update that launched Tuesday.

People will be able to report on the app whether social-distancing measures have been implemented and if staff are wearing masks through answering survey questions on the business’ page or through the edit button on a company’s COVID-19 updates section.

Customers will only be able to comment on social distancing and mask use as they are the only safety measures that can easily be monitored by the public, according to Yelp’s press release.

Read more: Aggressive and misleading sales tactics by Yelp employees knowingly prey on small businesses during the pandemic, insiders say

On Yelp, customers will be able to quickly identify whether a business is following safety guidelines, as the company’s listing will feature a green check mark next to “Social distancing enforced according to most users” and “Staff wears masks according to most users” or an orange question mark next to “Social distancing might not be enforced according to most users” and “Staff might not wear masks according to most users.”

Yelp said movements it's made to prioritize COVID-19 information on its site in the past has only increased consumer interest.

"This new update further highlights how businesses have adapted to keep their customers safe, and aims to instill confidence in consumers to continue supporting local businesses," Yelp's head of consumer product, Akhil Ramesh, said in the announcement.

Since launching the update, Yelp says the orange question mark has only appeared on a couple hundred businesses out of the millions the site hosts. 

Businesses are safe guarded against faulty claims as several criteria must be met before the feedback is publicly displayed. Multiple customers must report the business is not implementing social distancing or enforcing the use of masks for it to appear on the site. Users must be logged into their accounts and responses are no longer counted after 28 days.

Read more: A pair of TikTok influencers sold $100,000 worth of masks in 2 days, and it shows the app's e-commerce potential

Businesses with multiple locations will only receive feedback based on each individual location and will not be rated overall.

Yelp will also be sending users notifications when a company updates its COVID-19 information. 

The review aggregation site has actively updated coronavirus data on the app since the pandemic started. In June, Yelp launched its coronavirus safety section where companies were able to update their pages with their own COVID-19 information.