Airbnb hires Eric Holder to fight discrimination

(Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images)

Airbnb is hiring former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to help create an anti-discrimination policy.

The home rental company has been hit with complaints of discrimination and racism by some of its hosts and customers. Airbnb has also created new staff positions focused on detecting and dealing with discrimination.

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The company admits it has been slow to address discrimination by hosts, saying that it wasn’t fully conscious of the issue when it designed the platform. The Harvard Business School studied Airbnb hosts last year and found widespread discrimination.

Holder’s hiring is part of the company’s effort to deal with that issue. He served as U.S. attorney general for the first six years of President Obama’s tenure and was a champion for civil rights.