Blogger: Airbnb Told Me to Keep Silent

The horror story of San Francisco blogger “EJ” keeps getting worse. She wrote about returning from a weeklong trip to discover that her apartment had been trashed by a guest she’d connected with through the online rental agency Airbnb, which just received a $1.3 billion valuation. When her post went viral, she says, the company’s cofounders contacted her and noted the “potentially negative impact” her blog could have on their firm's growth and asked her to shut it down or update it with a “twist of good news.” A 19-year-old San Francisco resident had been arrested on charges of fraud, possession of methamphetamine, and stolen property in connection with the ransacking, but she is no longer in custody.