Is Yelp a scam?

I have a listing for my business on Yelp, and had two people leave me 5-star reviews. I discovered today that Yelp’s AI has hidden those reviews, as it felt they were “not helpful.” 🤬🤬🤬

@thomasareed yes it absolutely is a scam. They extort you to pay for ads so they will show your positive reviews. I regret using them. It is expensive and I saw no return on the investment.

I agree with this explanation I just found from Reddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/15r8pj9/beware_of_yelp_for_business_scammers_rant/

@ridogi Yeah, that seems to match my so-far limited experience. And the biggest scam is that it seems you cannot remove your business from Yelp. I should never have added it!