‘Racist views’ allowed to stay on TripAdvisor
Restaurant owner condemns restaurant review site after battle with online troll
BIRMINGHAM chef Aktar Islam has urged TripAdvisor to do more to combat “racist and bigoted” posts after he was “trolled continuously” on the website.
The Saturday Kitchen star said an “ill-informed and racist” comment had been allowed to remain on the review website and some users appeared to be allowed to write “whatever nonsense they liked”.
He said too many comments were either “factually incorrect or simply outrageous and abusive”.
The Post reported last month how Mr Islam had been involved in a long-running row after a TripAdvisor user accused him of “selling out as a Muslim” for serving pork at his city centre Opheem restaurant.
He initially responded to the review, making it clear he was not a Muslim and saying religion had “nothing to do with me or my restaurant”.
He said the same account was used to post a “defamatory” review of his other restaurant, the newlyopened Italian eatery Legna, also in the city centre.
That was deleted by TripAdvisor after several complaints from other users and the venue itself.
But Mr Islam said a reworded version of the same review, said by the chef to still be “highly racist and bigoted”, was later posted.
He said: “In the guise of legitimate reviews on TripAdvisor, one user has been allowed to troll continuously. TripAdvisor detects certain words which are defamatory.
“The user got rid of those words but the second post was still highly racist and bigoted.
“In the so-called ‘toned down’ review he made references to my Bangladeshi heritage in order to question my credibility of my cooking of world cuisine. This post is still ill-informed and racist. It personifies bigotry. But TripAdvisor has allowed it to remain.
“And what is even more frustrating is there is no evidence the user has ever dined at any of my restaurants. Surely there should be something in place where reviews are verified?”
In the new review, the user brands Legna a fake Italian, saying: “You will not find authentic Italian food here as owners have no link to Italy.
“Fish tasted like it had been taken out of a freezer, closely resembled frozen fish from bangla bazaar (a reference to Aktar’s Bangladeshi heritage).”
Mr Islam said: “Legna is an Italian eatery but apparently due to the colour of my skin, I’m not allowed to know about Italian food. I’ve studied food for 25 years, including food from around the world. I should be able to do whatever I want without being bound by my ethnicity. But apparently that’s not on.
“This user feels I shouldn’t be doing Indian food either because he’s from Mumbai and I’m from Birmingham. These reviews have no place on a credible review site.”