Discrimination against SWers

[Alice1248]

Dear @Airbnb 

I highly support sex work and sex workers and many are LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and disabled.  Many sex workers have stated that they have stayed at an Airbnb, did not do any sex work whatsoever during her time there, but was prohibited from getting an Airbnb ever again because Airbnb found out she does sex work on the side. 

This is discrimination and many sex workers have spoken up to your hypocritical anti-discrimination policy due to the fact you discriminate against sex workers!! 

[Anonymous]

@Alice1248  This isn't something I've heard of before. Could you please link to the source of your information?

And presumably this is unrelated, but why do you appear to be nude in your profile photo? It's a nice picture for some contexts, but a home rental platform is a somewhat unusual place to expose one's breasts. I got my last passport photo taken on a boiling hot summer day, I was dying to strip off ASAP but I figured it wouldn't make things easy at the airport if Passport Control was looking at my boobies.

[Alice1248]

I will definitely find the links. 

and lol I’m actually not nude at all. I have a shirt on but the way the photo is cropped, it does appear nude. 

this is the full photo - https://www.imagebam.com/view/MEB0P87 

[Alice1248]

Ok so here are some links:

https://www.dailydot.com/debug/airbnb-account-dominatrix/?amp

https://www.xbiz.com/news/249406/airbnb-admits-ownership-of-ai-technology-that-targets-sex-workers-o...

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/airbnb-sex-worker-discrimination-935048/amp/

https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/gvzzkx/why-its-perfectly-legal-for-airbnb-to-discriminate-agains...

https://www.inputmag.com/culture/report-airbnb-owns-ai-tech-that-discriminates-against-sex-workers/a...

https://theconversation.com/amp/the-stigma-of-sex-work-comes-with-a-high-cost-79657

https://www.engadget.com/2020-01-17-your-online-activity-effectively-social-credit-score-airbnb.html... 

[Alice1248]

Here are links to prove AirBnb’s discrimination:

https://www.dailydot.com/debug/airbnb-account-dominatrix/?amp

https://www.xbiz.com/news/249406/airbnb-admits-ownership-of-ai-technology-that-targets-sex-workers-o...

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/airbnb-sex-worker-discrimination-935048/amp/

https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/gvzzkx/why-its-perfectly-legal-for-airbnb-to-discriminate-agains...

https://www.inputmag.com/culture/report-airbnb-owns-ai-tech-that-discriminates-against-sex-workers/a...

https://theconversation.com/amp/the-stigma-of-sex-work-comes-with-a-high-cost-79657

https://www.engadget.com/2020-01-17-your-online-activity-effectively-social-credit-score-airbnb.html...

[Anonymous]

@Alice1248   Thank you for taking the time to compile those links. These articles offer some useful insight into the ways Airbnb collects data on its users, and the consequences that can have for a lot of people - including sex workers. One underlying problem seems to be that Airbnb (like many other tech companies) is fully committed to AI being the entire brain and heart of its operation, even when the basic product can't thrive without the finesse of a human intellect.

You might have been disappointed that your post was largely passed over by the host community, but usually when the topic of SW comes up it's in the context of guests using Airbnb rentals to conduct sex work without permission. Hosts tend to wish Airbnb did more discrimination based on guests' background checks rather than less, but of course we should be skeptical about which criteria they're targeting.