Airbnb is banning people trying to attend a white supremacist rally
1–10 of 61 posts
Re: Airbnb is banning people trying to attend a white supremacist rally
#2Not a problem.
Re: Airbnb is banning people trying to attend a white supremacist rally
#3Banning SOME of the people that were trying to attend the event.
What is actually going on here? The articles and comment go on like everyone is getting banned for any association to an event, and debating hypotheticals.
Who is getting banned and for what actual reasons? Any hosts? Some guests? Who, what, and the nuances of why are notoriously missing from this
Re: Airbnb is banning people trying to attend a white supremacist rally
#4[deleted]
Re: Airbnb is banning people trying to attend a white supremacist rally
#5Awesome. The idea that companies are apolitical can't die fast enough. No person-to-person platform can reach scale and be apolitical.
You end up with companies like reddit and twitter who are too timid to make a stand about what their rules really are, and then waffle until they're forced to deal either with the PR nightmare of suddenly changing directions at scale, or the PR nightmare of allowing shitbags nobody wants to deal with to run rampant on the platform because they don't want to change directions at scale.
If you really want to support "anything goes" you have to be willing to be 2006 /b/. Turns out the legal, advertising, and financial implications of this decision are painful (even for 4chan).
If you're not willing to be /b/, you've default accepted that free speech is off the table. If that's the case, the best thing you can do is actually spend thought and effort on your principles, and on enforcing them swiftly and evenhandedly.
Speech is free on the internet, and it should be. Speech is not free on a single company's website, and it shouldn't be.
Curation is a very important form of product design, and curation of users (or lack thereof) is no exception.
Re: Airbnb is banning people trying to attend a white supremacist rally
#6As a non-American, I find it quite worrying that American companies (specifically tech and SV ones) that operate globally are so eager to police politics on their platforms.
While I don't agree with White power rallies (which should go without saying), they have as much right to service as any other political group.
StackOverflow already took an "open-borders, anti-Trump, or get out mentality", so its not a stretch to say that any right leaning belief, or more acurately any non-extreme left belief will be under fire from more and more companies.
That is troubling indeed.
Re: Airbnb is banning people trying to attend a white supremacist rally
#7As a non-American, I find it quite worrying that American companies (specifically tech and SV ones) that operate globally are so eager to police politics on their platforms. While I don't agree with White power rallies (which should go without saying), they have as much right to service as any other political group. StackOverflow already took an "open-borders, anti-Trump, or get out mentality", so its not a stretch t…
> StackOverflow already took an "open-borders, anti-Trump, or get out mentality", so its not a stretch to say that any right leaning belief, or more acurately any non-extreme left belief will be under fire from more and more companies.
This approach is burning bridges and giving up on any attempt to convince the other side. They'll still hold their views and they'll be forced into a bubble where their views are reinforced and are likely to become more extreme. Next election cycle could very well have people asking "how on earth did Trump get re-elected?" and the answer will be this style of attempted thought control.
Even worse, it's burning bridges with people in the middle and in many cases even the ones that are on your side.
Re: Airbnb is banning people trying to attend a white supremacist rally
#8As a non-American, I find it quite worrying that American companies (specifically tech and SV ones) that operate globally are so eager to police politics on their platforms. While I don't agree with White power rallies (which should go without saying), they have as much right to service as any other political group. StackOverflow already took an "open-borders, anti-Trump, or get out mentality", so its not a stretch t…
> StackOverflow already took an "open-borders, anti-Trump, or get out mentality", so its not a stretch to say that any right leaning belief, or more acurately any non-extreme left belief will be under fire from more and more companies. This approach is burning bridges and giving up on any attempt to convince the other side. They'll still hold their views and they'll be forced into a bubble where their views are reinf…
People "in the middle" are not attending white power rallies.
Re: Airbnb is banning people trying to attend a white supremacist rally
#9The epidemic problem with bay area companies mixing their leftist politics and business is very disconcerting. They are alienating the majority population of the country, and are acting in the same manner as groups they claim to loathe. It is pure hypocrisy.
Bay area companies enjoy diversity and inclusion, as long as it fits within their narrative.
Re: Airbnb is banning people trying to attend a white supremacist rally
#10Not a problem.
You aren't worried that Airbnb's net will catch innocent people? For example: Journalists covering the rally, or counter-protesters.