Airbnb is being sued over claims that hosts who use the site to rent out their homes discriminate against potential renters based on race. Gregory Selden, a 25-year-old black man filed the suit on Monday, claiming his civil rights were violated after being refused an Airbnb vacancy, but later being granted the rental after changing his photo on the site to one of a white man.

The popular online renting platform is accused of enabling “widespread discrimination against hosts and guests based on their race”

The online lodging service Airbnb has a race problem that the tech giant has a moral, if not legal, duty to expunge from its self-described “trusted community marketplace.”

In the past 24 hours, we have been seeing multiple articles regarding the disadvantages black people seem to receive when using Airbnb and the #AirbnbWhileBlack social media movement. When we heard that such articles had been published, we both reacted with “OMG THANK YOU FINALLY SOMEONE WRITES ABOUT THIS!”

Black Airbnb users have been exposing the racist tendencies of the company’s hosts with the hashtag #AirbnbWhileBlack. One potential guest, however, has taken this a step further: He’s provided proof that Airbnb’s hosts are unapologetically discriminating against people of color.

A MAN claims that a man refused to rent him his property purely because of his
skin colour.

When Greg Selden, 25, from Virginia, USA, made an enquiry about booking a
house on Airbnb, he was told there was no availability.

Airbnb is facing a storm of criticism after several consumers complained of racial discrimination from some of the home-sharing service app’s hosts.

Public Advocate Letitia James has accused Airbnb of enabling racial discrimination by failing to address “mounting” evidence that black users earn less than white users on the platform, and elicit fewer responses both as hosts and guests.

AirBNB seems like an amazing idea: Owners offer rooms — and sometimes whole apartments or houses — for a fee, and users are able to explore new cities with the perks of being embedded in the neighborhoods they’re exploring.