A thread for those who may not be aware.

@airbnb uses AI to detect whether a user is a sex worker, mentally ill, or otherwise "un-desirable".

Based on this algorithm, #airbnb bans these folks, even if they were *not* looking to use the property for e.g., #sexwork.

Multiple sex workers we interviewed in Europe (Germany/Switzerland) reported this problem extensively, even though sex work is not illegal behavior.

This is a classic case, as many workers discussed, of Americanized-tech damagingly applying our "ethics" to the rest of the world

Our interview data further confirms the prevalence of this practice internationally, which denies legal sex workers, among other groups determined undesirable by AI, from participating in a large and fast growing part of the gig economy, when they are gig workers themselves!

This practice originally reported in these news articles: http://rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/airbnb-sex-worker-discrimination-935048/

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/gvzzkx/why-its-perfectly-legal-for-airbnb-to-discriminate-against-sex-workers

https://www.inputmag.com/culture/report-airbnb-owns-ai-tech-that-discriminates-against-sex-workers

cc original reporters: @ejdickson @kari_paul @inputmag