News/Commentary

Airbnb reverses ban on parents of right-wing influencer after it gets shamed publicly

February 9, 2023 | | Print Article

After massive backlash, Airbnb claims it was a “mistake” that they banned the parents of Canadian conservative YouTuber Lauren Southern because they were “closely associated” with their daughter in a move reminiscent of Chinese social credit scores.

(Video Credit: Fox News)

Airbnb sent an email to Southern’s parents informing them that their account had been closed with the service because of their daughter, who the company had already banned years previously for her political views.

“We’ve removed you from the Airbnb platform because your account is closely associated with a person who isn’t allowed to use Airbnb. This means you’ll no longer be able to book reservations on Airbnb,” the message contended. “For the safety of our community, we may remove accounts that are closely associated with people who aren’t allowed to use Airbnb.”

Canadian authorities and leftists describe Southern as a conservative extremist. She is a filmmaker and previously worked for Rebel News. Southern was also reportedly banned from entering the United Kingdom, according to The Independent.

“My parents just got banned from AirBnB for being related to me. They have never booked anything for me. They do not represent me in any way. They aren’t publicly political in any way. How is this sane in any way [Airbnb]?” Southern angrily tweeted Tuesday.

“My parents are some of the sweetest people I know. They were just planning a romantic getaway, they aren’t political activists,” she went on to assert via Twitter. Southern then hammered the company over the issue, “All I’ve learned is that if governments and corporations can’t shut you up by harming you, they’ll now go for your families.”


Her tweets went viral and, not long after that, Airbnb said they made a “mistake” and proceeded to reinstate her parents’ account.

Southern astutely pointed out that the move was only taken to do damage control over “negative press.”

Airbnb also referred to an “appeal” that her parents never filed.

“My parents never appealed the decision. They’re trying to make this look like a mistake due to bad PR. It was not. They just miscalculated how far they could go,” she pointed out. “How about the truth for a change?”

“Further context: I was banned years ago for my politics and ‘affiliations’ as well. How many degrees of ‘affiliations’ can AirBnB realistically ban people for? Will friends of my parents now be banned? Cousins? Second cousins? (yes I appealed, it went nowhere),” Southern also tweeted.


Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s producer reached out to Airbnb over the move. Former White House press secretary under Barack Obama, James Carney, is now Global Head of Policy for the service which is interesting all in itself.

Carlson was also incensed over Airbnb’s actions, telling Southern on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in an interview, “This shouldn’t surprise us. These are the same people who attack entire groups of people on the basis of their genetics… some groups are innocent, some groups are guilty. It’s classic Nazi race science. You’re implicated by your blood. I mean that’s what Airbnb is saying.”

Southern’s initial tweet got millions of views and people on Twitter were outraged at Airbnb over its actions:

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