Hi Couchsurfers!
We are sometimes asked about member profile removal and why we may have chosen to take a particular action. There are a number of reasons why someone’s profile might be removed from the system, and we will never discuss the specifics of any one member’s case, but I thought I’d share some of the most common reasons for profile removal and clarify a couple of things. (It’s important to remember, too, that members sometimes remove their own profiles.)
First off, we don’t remove profiles simply because a member might disagree with something that the Couchsurfing organization is doing. That would be silly.
The Trust and Safety Team works behind the scenes to decrease abuse in our system. Our goal is to remove anyone who is a safety or security threat to the community. When we receive confidential reports from members, we take the appropriate actions in accordance with our Terms of Use. Here are some of the reasons a member’s profile might be removed by Couchsurfing:
Duplicate Profiles: Duplicate profiles don’t serve the community. When we find them, we remove them.
Safety-related reports: When we receive credible information that a member is a safety threat to the community, we’ll remove the profile. Anyone can send us a confidential report through the Contact Us/Help link at the bottom of pages throughout the website. We take these reports seriously.
Member privacy violations: We’ll also remove members who attempt to violate other members’ privacy (scraping data that contains user information and publicly posting it elsewhere, for example).
Threatening or harassing members or employees: Posting personal or private information, making threats (actual or veiled), etc. are behaviors that we don’t tolerate.
Hopefully this answers some of your questions. We have many deeply passionate members who help make the Couchsurfing community what it is. Let’s work together to make Couchsurfing the safest and best community it can be. For everyone.
Update: Couchsurfing’s CEO, Tony Espinoza, has responded to community concerns on the blog.