Quote from @Account Closed:
Quote from @Ryan Moyer:
I honestly haven't followed this story at all, but 99% of the time these stories come up it's because someone acted like a troll and violated the ToS and is trying to drum up outrage by pretending they were banned because of their beliefs instead of their misbehavior. And in the keenest form of irony, it's almost always someone that lectures about other people being whiney and not taking responsibility for their actions.
Thousands of people get banned from these platforms every day for violating the terms. It's just when someone who is outspoken and likes to play the victim decides to throw a hissy fit when it happens to them that it makes headlines.
It's like an 8 year old that punches their little sister for no reason and then cries "you're not fair" when they get their ice cream taken away in response.
Like I said, I haven't followed this particular instance so maybe it's not the case here, but these perpetual babies have lost the benefit of the doubt.
It's her mother that has been banned, not because of any actions her mother has taken. She's been banned because of who she is related to. That is called authoritarianism.
She's Not someone throwing a hissy fit.
Yeah I just read a few articles on it to catch up. It looks like Airbnb has an algorithm or policy that attempts to prevent banned people from accessing airbnb hosted homes through other people's accounts. IE if they ban someone from staying in Airbnb properties, they don't want them staying there at all even if someone else books the stay. I agree it's probably kind of silly but I'd assume the idea is if someone causes damage to a home or something they don't want them in another airbnb property to repeat it even if someone else makes the booking. Ironic that an algorithm designed to protect hosts by punishing guests is causing outrage when host's #1 complaint is that airbnb too often favors guests at the expense of hosts.
I realize that in this case there wasn't damage involved but I doubt the algorithm or policy is sophisticated enough to differentiate in the reason for banning. It's just a matter of trying to keep banned people out of airbnb hosted homes.
Yeah it sucks and sometimes people get screwed by it. That's just called life and this is true of every company. It's only a story here because it's someone that likes to create controversy had an opportunity to do something against a company they perceive to differ politically.
I mean, I'm banned from Wells Fargo because I turned on my VPN between Wells Fargo log ins and Wells' algorithm thought I was trying to access my account simultaneously from multiple countries. I'm sure this algorithm has banned hundreds of others from banking with them but no one knows about it because they're just regular people. If I were a famous controversial figure I'm sure I could say that Wells banned me because I'm from Florida or because my hair is brown or whatever reason I dreamed up and a million chumps would plaster cries of boycott across the internet.
There are a lot of reasons to be wary about relying on airbnb (or any company) for too much of your business. "They're algorithm for trying to keep bad guests off the platform is a little too aggressive" is pretty far down the list.