Netizens Flock to Yelp to Give Jack Phillips' Masterpiece Cakeshop Negative Reviews After Supreme Court Ruling
The US Supreme Court backed Colorado baker Jack Phillips who refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple, but netizens flocked to the bakeshop's Yelp page to express their disappointment.
After the Supreme Court justices voted 7–2 stating that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had been hostile toward Phillips because of his religious beliefs. But for the netizens who believed that gay rights had been violated, the baker was simply discriminating against customers who do not share his own values.
A lot of netizens gave the Masterpiece Cakeshop a single-star rating and wrote negative reviews on the online review site.
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One of the reviewer from Dana Point, CA believed that after discriminating against customers who wanted cake for their same-sex wedding, the cakeshop will also turn away those who have a May–December love affair or those who will have an interracial union.
Another reviewer, who actually live near the cakeshop, also said that she will never get a cake from Phillips. "This place is down the street from my house, but unfortunately for them, I will never patronize a business that discriminates against people. Even a Fudgie the Whale ice cream cake at Carvel would be better than going to this hate baker," the reviewer stated.
But not all netizens wrote hateful reviews for the cakeshop. A reviewer from Aurora, Colorado congratulated Phillips for winning the case at the Supreme Court. "ALL the rights have to be protected, not only the gays rights. I am not religious person and I like gay people, but the government CANNOT force a baker to do what he is uncomfortable doing as long as he explains and not discriminates," the reviewer stated.
Yelp immediately got wind of the rapid surge of post on the cakeshop's page. The website already started to filter and remove reviews that centered on the recent court rulings instead of its products and services.
According to Washington Examiner, the website issued an "Active Cleanup Alert" to filter the reviews that are critical of the bakery's stand.
"While we don't take a stand one way or the other when it comes to these news events, we do work to remove both positive and negative posts that appear to be motivated more by the news coverage itself than the reviewer's personal consumer experience with the business," a message on the cakeshop's Yelp page stated.
The review website also mentioned that the Active Cleanup Alert could remove posts as part of their cleanup process that started on Monday, June 4.
But aside from the reactions on Yelp, the community where Masterpiece Cakeshop belongs to are relatively happy for Phillip's victory. One customer named George Hefner even posed in front of the press after buying a cake from Phillips, saying: "The gay community, they are fine people, I am sure, but this crossed like into someone else's freedom, Jack's freedom, to believe what he believes."
Phillip's case versus the Colorado Civil Rights Commission at the US Supreme Court tackled the issue about whether owners of business establishments can refuse services based on the First Amendment claims of free speech and free exercise of religion, when the state's civil rights commission ruled that Phillips violated the rights of gay couple Charlie Craig and David Mullins to purchase a wedding cake in 2012.
