NOT HERE: No place on AirBNB for neo-Nazi ideology and violent extremism

AirBNB is removing neo-Nazis’ accounts from the online marketplace for lodging and homestays after their identities were revealed through the leaked Iron March forum, whose members held extreme Right-wing, neo-Nazi and white supremacist positions, according to a report by Mako.

AirBNB used the information released from the forum, which was created in 2011, to track down 60 accounts that allegedly belonged to neo-Nazis and remove them from its platform.

“This was a no-brainer,” a company spokesperson said. “When we see people on our platform pursuing behavior antithetical to our Community Commitment, we take action to prioritize the safety of our community.

“Through our trust and safety systems, we are continuously seeking to proactively identify those who could put our hosts and guests at risk,” the spokesperson said.

“Anyone sympathetic to neo-Nazi ideology and violent extremism has absolutely no place on AirBNB, and our community is a better place without them.”

AirBNB already has strict rules in their mandatory “community commitment” which every host must sign, stating that the hosts will not discriminate against anyone due to race, religion, sex or sexual orientation.

Nearly 1.2 million accounts were removed as a result of the rule being released in 2016 for refusing to sign the commitment, according to Mako.

It is not the first time Airbnb has acted against white supremacists and extreme right wing groups.

It banned attendees of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017, which saw a woman killed. It also banned users heading to a white nationalist conference in Tennessee earlier this year.

The Iron March forum was created by a Russian extremist named Alexander Mukhitdinov, according to Gizmodo. A team of neo-Nazi terrorists originally gathered on the platform, which was then linked to five different murders, as well as violence in Charlottesville and a Las Vegas bomb plot.