A White nationalist group is upset that the popular room-sharing service Airbnb has canceled bookings for those planning to attend its Saturday rally in Charlottesville, Va., and says it might pursue legal action.
Airbnb has confirmed it has canceled several bookings over what it has deemed violations of its “Airbnb Community Commitment,” which requires its customers to accept people regardless of race, national origin, and ethnicity.
people shouldn’t just #boycottairbnb they should sue @airbnb
imagine trying this approach if you rented to the public pic.twitter.com/MeGQPPjlWM
— the worst dude (@Worst4747) August 6, 2017
“We asked all members of the Airbnb to affirmatively sign on to this commitment. 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,” Airbnb said in a statement.
The cancellations come after a neo-nazi group boasted it had booked seven houses for 80 to 90 people from various alt-right groups.
But an organizer for the rally argued Airbnb’s actions could be cause for legal action because they unfairly targeted white customers.
“This is outrageous and should be grounds for a lawsuit,” organizer Jason Kessler told The Washington Post. “It’s the racial targeting of white people for their ethnic advocacy.” Kessler added the rally “is opposed to the historical and demographic displacement of white people. Would Airbnb cancel the service of black nationalists or Black Lives Matter activists for their social media activity? Of course not!”
Saturday’s “Unite the Right” rally is meant to protest calls to remove statues of Confederate figures, like Robert E. Lee, from a public park. It is expected to be attended by members of the National Socialist Movement, the pro-secessionist League of the South, The Nationalist Front and several other alt-right groups.
A July rally led by the Ku Klux Klan cost Charlottesville nearly $30,000 to protect almost 30 Klansman from close to 1,000 protesters. Law enforcement dispersed tear gas and arrested more than 20 people.
“This is an event which seeks to unify the right-wing against a totalitarian Communist crackdown, to speak out against displacement level immigration policies in the United States and Europe and to affirm the right of southerners and white people to organize for their interests just like any other group is able to do, free of persecution,” Unite the Right said in a Facebook post promoting the event.
City leaders announced Monday they intended to pull the event’s permit for Emancipation Park because of safety concerns, and said it could proceed if it was relocated to a larger city park that could better handle a larger crowd.
“I have notified the police of our intention to carry out our First Amendment protected demonstration at the Lee Statue and we are working with them to do this in as safe a manner as possible given the unwise and unlawful decision of city council to revoke our permit,” Kessler told the Washington Post.
