- Following the arrest of suspect Luigi Mangione, McDonald’s restaurants in Altoona, Pa., are being review-bombed.
Trolls are on the attack following the arrest of the person suspected of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson; the suspect was spotted in a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pa.
The chain’s three locations in the central Pennsylvania town are all being review-bombed by people who seemingly support the actions of suspect Luigi Mangione. Multiple one-star reviews appeared overnight on Google and Yelp.
The surge of negative reviews has prompted Yelp to issue an unusual activity alert, disabling the posting of new reviews for an unspecified period of time. (At the time of publication, Google had not yet taken such an action.)
“This business recently received increased public attention, which often means people come to this page to post their views on the news,” the Yelp notice reads. “While we don’t take a stand one way or the other when it comes to this incident, we’ve temporarily disabled the posting of content to this page as we work to investigate whether the content you see here reflects actual consumer experiences rather than the recent events. Please note that we apply this same policy regardless of the business and regardless of the topic at issue.”
McDonald’s did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment about the review bombs.
The reviews are about what you might expect. Some show support for Mangione:
- “More like Narc-donalds … I hope obesity and heart disease are in-network in Pa. Deny, defend, depose, diarrhea.”
- “Do not stop here if you are an American hero. They will sell you out.”
Others claimed to have seen a “rat” in the restaurant, further noting that it “will make you sick, and your insurance isn’t going to cover it.”
The rat comment seems not to refer to rodents, but instead to the employee who identified the suspected shooter and alerted police.