Owner Crystal O’Connor said: ‘If a gay couple came in and wanted us to provide pizzas for their wedding, we would have to say no.’ Photograph: ABC 57

Indiana pizza joint pranked by Yelp users for backing religious freedom bill

This article is more than 9 years old

Owners of Memories Pizza in Walkerton, Indiana, said they ‘definitely agreed with the bill’ – and a few hours later, Yelp users had sprung into action

On the business review site Yelp, one of the featured photos for a small pizza shop in Indiana this week included a man wearing only his underwear. He was using one hand to hold a box of pasta over his face – and the other to hold … something else.

Such an image is likely not in keeping with the Christian values of Memories Pizza in Walkerton, Indiana (population: 2,248). But the pizza and ice cream store found itself in the middle of a social media firestorm on Wednesday, the day after its owners told a told a local news station they support Indiana’s controversial religious freedom law.

The video went viral, making Memories something of a microcosm for a renewed culture war over so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Acts in several states. Now the internet is striking back against what mischievous, equality minded Yelpers are calling the “first place to discriminate”.

Governor Mike Pence insisted on Tuesday that Indiana’s sweeping new religious exemption law does not give businesses a license to discriminate against LGBT customers. A few hours later, Crystal and Kevin O’Connor told ABC57 they “definitely agree with the bill”. The pizza shop owners said they will serve LGBT customers, and that they are not discriminating against anyone.

However, Crystal O’Connor told the station: “If a gay couple came in and wanted us to provide pizzas for their wedding, we would have to say no.”

On Yelp, users sprang into action to say “no” right back.

“Worst pizza I have ever had regardless of the side of bigotry that comes along with it,” wrote user Laura S.

“We don’t serve pizza at our weddings,” wrote user Gary C. “And certainly not pizzas with hateful toppings of intolerance.”

Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act prohibits laws that “substantially burden” a person’s ability to follow their religious beliefs, with the concept of a “person” being defined – more loosely than in other states with similar laws – to include businesses and other organizations.

Some of the images posted on the Yelp page for Memories Pizza are much more graphic and include photos of genitalia.

Yelp, in a statement to the Guardian, said “non-germane, media-fueled reviews” tend to violate the company’s content guidelines.

“Yelp reviews are required to describe a firsthand consumer experience, not what someone read in the news,” the company said. “Our user support team ultimately removes reviews that violate these guidelines.”

The company said it has a system in place to remove reviews that are “rants about a business’s employment practices, political ideologies, extraordinary circumstances, or other matters that don’t address the core of the consumer experience”.