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Airbnb undermined team that removed extremist users, whistleblower claims | CNN Business

edition.cnn.com Airbnb undermined team that removed extremist users, whistleblower claims | CNN Business

Airbnb has undermined users’ safety by scaling back its work to remove extremists from its platform, a former contractor alleged in a new whistleblower complaint.

Airbnb undermined team that removed extremist users, whistleblower claims | CNN Business

Jess Hernandez worked full-time as an investigations analyst for Airbnb’s dangerous organizations team from May 2022 to November 2023, researching extremist networks as part of the company’s work to keep dangerous individuals off the platform. But she says she was terminated in November 2023, shortly after her team was directed by management to reinstate users who had been removed for their participation in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

“Airbnb spent much of 2023 scaling back and undermining the work of its team tasked with removing individuals affiliated with dangerous and extremist organizations from the platform,” Whistleblower Aid, the organization representing Hernandez, said in a statement. It added that by making the changes, “Airbnb privately abandoned its public commitment to its hosts’ and guests’ safety and security under this policy.”

Hernandez filed the whistleblower disclosure in May to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Trade Commission. The complaint was first reported Wednesday by NBC News. CNN has not viewed the complaint and could not independently verify the details included in the NBC News report.

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