Harvard professor temporarily banned for having several test accounts while investigating how white and black users are treated differently on the site
Airbnb blocked a Harvard professor from using its service after he uncovered evidence of racial discrimination, prompting accusations that the startups policies stifle critical research.
After the Guardian contacted Airbnb about the suspension of Ben Edelman, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, a spokesman said it had reinstated his account.
Emails show that Edelman, who is one of the most prominent researchers cited in the debate about racism on Airbnb, was suspended because he had created test accounts to study how black guests face higher rates of rejection than white users.
This is not research the company favors, Edelman said, adding that he was concerned about the overarching threat they hold over everyone who wants to do this kind of research.
This month, Edelman discovered that the $30bn technology company suspended him for violating a policy against users having multiple accounts. His wife was also suspended, presumably because they use the same IP address though she played no role in his research.
Edelman said the company ignored his pleas to the sites customer service department. The professor said his account was also suspended over the summer and only reinstated after a journalist asked Airbnb about it.
Academics and regular users were only able to expose discrimination on the site by creating fake accounts to test how hosts responded to users of different races.
Earlier this year, black Airbnb users started sharing discrimination stories on social media with the viral hashtag #AirbnbWhileBlack. Some of them showed how a host rejected their request but then immediately approved them when they created fake accounts with white profile photos.
Edelmans research demonstrated that the problem wasnt isolated. In 2015, he created 20 test accounts that were identical except half used distinctively African American names while half had white names. The study, which involved thousands of listings across five US cities, found that black users were 16% less likely to be accepted than identical guests with white names.
The professor said that the suspension policy was particularly unfair if it were used against black guests who created fake white accounts to test whether a specific host rejected them due to their race.
Not only are they facing discrimination trying to use Airbnb, but then when they try to prove it, they are banned.