A hashtag claims Airbnb racism is real, and Harvard study agrees - CNET

Look on Twitter for the hashtag #Airbnbwhileblack, and you'll find a number of protests that racism is alive in the sharing economy.

A Harvard Business School study published earlier this year found that having a "distinctively African American name" led to being 16% less likely to be accepted at Airbnb, The Guardian reported earlier today. And there are a growing number of people that have taken to Twitter claiming that changing their profiles from black to white led to rooms suddenly becoming available again, illustrating racial bias.

#AirbnbWhileBlack made a fake profile as a white guy and was accepted immediately. pic.twitter.com/miUWG3OvQV

— G. Sel (@_GSelden) May 4, 2016

David King, AirBnb's director of diversity, told NPR the company is aware of discrimination on its service and wants to address it.

Others on the Airbnbwhileblack hashtag suggest the racism happens across other lines, too. It's unfortunate but probably not surprising: as long as services like Airbnb have accounts where everyone can view each other's names and faces, discrimination can occur.

Airbnb did not immediately respond to a request for comment.