Is Airbnb Doing Enough to Ban Hate Groups? Airbnb Responds to Whistleblower Claims

Airbnb said in 2021 that it had been taking "more aggressive action" to ban violent members of dangerous organizations. Its policies followed violent incidents and riots from the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally in 2017 to the January 6 attack on the Capitol, during which participants had stayed in Airbnbs.

But a whistleblower, who was an Airbnb contractor from May 2022 to November 2023, claims that Airbnb in 2023 "dissolved" the team whose mission was to identify members of hate groups, NBC News reported last week.

The whistleblower complaint was addressed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, according to NBC News, which obtained it from a Congressional source.

The complaint, according to NBC News, said the team that helped investigate and remove violent extremists faced roadblocks at Airbnb, and that the number of t