Member Removal: Is Couchsurfing Censoring the Community by Removing Outspoken Members?

There’s a rumor circulating that Couchsurfing removes members because they are outspoken or don’t agree with the organization.

We have a passionate, involved, and vocal community. We absolutely do not remove member accounts for dissenting opinion. We haven’t, and we won’t.

Couchsurfing is a community of difference, tolerance, and cultural exchange.  It’s our goal to do everything possible to promote the safety and wellbeing of all members.

As indicated in an earlier blog post by our Head of Safety, if a member has been removed by Couchsurfing, it’s typically for one of the following reasons:

We’ve received a safety-related report: When we receive credible information that a member is a safety threat to the community, we’ll remove the profile.

Member privacy has been violated: We’ll also remove members who attempt to violate other members’ privacy (by publicly posting user data, for example).

It’s a duplicate profile: Duplicate profiles don’t serve the community. When we find them, we remove them – this is the most common reason for profile removal.

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