Aug. 8 (UPI) — Airbnb said it is permanently deactivating the accounts of people who are attempting to use the website’s service to find lodging to attend an upcoming white supremacist rally in Virginia.
The online booking service said it believes that people planning to attend the “Unite the Right” rally on Aug. 12, which is featuring a variety of white supremacist online personalities, are violating the company’s terms and conditions, which all members sign when they create an account. The company also said it runs background checks on members to determine who engages in behavior it deems inappropriate.
“In 2016 we established the Airbnb Community Commitment reflecting our belief that to make good on our mission of belonging, those who are members of the Airbnb community accept people regardless of their race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or age. We asked all members of the Airbnb to affirmatively sign on to this commitment,” Airbnb said Monday.
The company added: “When through our background check processes or from input of our community we identify and determine that there are those who would be pursuing behavior on the platform that would be antithetical to the Airbnb Community Commitment, we seek to take appropriate action including, as in this case, removing them from the platform.”
Rally attendees expressed their anger at the company’s decision on social media.
Rally organizer Jason Kessler, called for a boycott of Airbnb because “we are having our civil rights violated,” reported Buzzfeed.
“You see this thing going that’s going on with Airbnb,” he said in a video. “Anybody who is not just in the alt-right, but who is conservative, right-wing or cares about civil liberties should start boycotting Airbnb. Airbnb are cancelling people’s reservations to stay in Charlottesville … based on political ideology.”
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