Michelle Malkin Banned From Airbnb After Attending Hate Fest
“Members of or actively affiliated with hate groups, we remove them from Airbnb,” a company spokesperson told The Daily Beast.
Charley Gallay
Far-right columnist and white nationalist ally Michelle Malkin has been booted from Airbnb after attending the white nationalist organization American Renaissance's gathering in Nashville last November.
“Consistent with our policies, if we become aware of users who are members of or are actively affiliated with hate groups, we remove them from Airbnb,” company spokesperson Ben Breit told The Daily Beast on Wednesday. The site also banned Malkin’s husband, she wrote, since her trips were often booked from his account.
“The new twist in my case is Airbnb going after my HUSBAND for simply being married to me. Are my kids next? How about other #AmericaFirst families?” Malkin, a close ally of white nationalist Nicholas Fuentes' extremist “America First” movement, fumed Wednesday afternoon on Twitter.
“Of course, this latest & ongoing escalation of the deplatforming wars is not just about Airbnb or me,” continued Malkin. “It’s about curtailing underlying power of SPLC & ADL to oppress their most effective political opponents & sabotage every aspect of our professional & personal lives.”
The SPLC has deemed American Renaissance a hate group, while the Anti-Defamation League has called it a “white supremacist journal.”
Airbnb requires users to adhere to their “Airbnb Community Commitment” and “treat everyone in the Airbnb community—regardless of their race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or age—with respect, and without judgment or bias.” The platform says that it has booted more than 1 million users for violating that commitment, most notably the white nationalists they removed in 2017 for attending the infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.
Following publication, Malkin claimed in an email to The Daily Beast that she “didn't use Airbnb to book accommodations in Nashville,” but that the ban was merely due to her speaking at the gathering.
Editors's note: An initial version of this story stated that Malkin stayed at an Airbnb during her Nashville speaking engagement.
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