You’ve probably heard of or have used Airbnb. They are an online platform that connects people who want to rent out their properties to travelers who don’t want to stay at a traditional hotel.
As a publicly traded company, Airbnb has a variety of shareholders who own its stock, including conservative organizations like The Heritage Foundation and American Conservative Values ETF. And every year, shareholders are able to bring proposals to be voted on by other shareholders. These proposals act as a key mechanism for investors to communicate their priorities and prompt change in a company’s policies.
But during the last round of shareholder proposals and voting, Airbnb claims that not one, but two, separate shareholder proposals got lost in the mail.
The company wants everyone to believe that a FedEx driver failed to deliver two documents submitted by shareholders to its San Francisco headquarters, despite the fact that FedEx had receipts of delivery for both. Airbnb even suggested that the company forged the signatures.
Does Airbnb truly believe that FedEx faked two different delivery receipts?
Or does this have to do with the fact that both shareholder proposals came from conservative organizations?
Missing shareholder proposals
Two organizations, The Heritage Foundation and the American Conservative Values ETF, own stock in Airbnb.
The Heritage Foundation is a well-known D.C.-based research and educational institution whose mission is to build and promote conservative public policies. And American Conservative Values ETF is the first exchange-traded fund for conservative investors.
Heritage owns at least $40,000 in Airbnb stock while ACVF owns at least $25,000.
Both organizations sent shareholder proposals in December of 2024. Even though they followed all protocols from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to submit separate shareholder resolutions, neither proposal showed up on Airbnb’s proxy ballot.
What happened?
Airbnb has a history of political activism
The Heritage Foundation filed a resolution highlighting Airbnb’s long track record of getting involved in politics. For example, in 2018, the company caved to pressure and delisted Israeli-owned rental properties in the West Bank.
ACVF’s resolution called on Airbnb to issue a report on how its terms of use policies negatively impact shareholder value. The resolution highlights that Airbnb is included in the list of the largest digital service providers scored by ADF’s Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index, all of which have policies allowing restriction of services based on broad and easily weaponizable terms such as “misinformation,” “hate speech,” “intolerance,” or “reputational risk.”
It’s easy to see how terms like this set the table for discrimination against customers. Airbnb has a policy that prohibits users who are “leaders of hate groups” or who engage in speech that employees deem “hateful.”
Both shareholder resolutions from the two organizations arrived via FedEX to the Airbnb headquarters in San Francisco, California. And both packages were signed for by the same Airbnb mailroom employee on separate dates–one on the filing deadline and one the day before.
So why didn’t either resolution appear on Airbnb’s proxy ballot when it was released in late April? Where did they go?
Well, Airbnb would have you believe that the resolutions were both lost by FedEx.
“Airbnb’s ‘lost in the mail’ excuse is a new low,” said ADF Senior Counsel Alexandra Gaiser. “While Airbnb speaks about tolerance and diversity, its actions show that its leadership is intolerant to views represented by more than half the country.”
Lawsuit challenges threat of viewpoint discrimination
Every individual and organization should be able to own stocks in publicly traded companies regardless of their beliefs. And shareholders have the right to vote and make their voices heard about the company’s policies. The Heritage Foundation and ACVF should have been able to have their proposals considered by Airbnb.
But the importance of this case goes beyond that. Again and again, we’ve seen large corporations discriminate against customers with conservative beliefs. The examples range from AmazonSmile not allowing some conservative organizations to fundraise on their platforms, all the way to banks freezing the accounts of individuals based on their participation in political protests in Canada.
If companies are permitted to discriminate against their own shareholders based on their viewpoints, what is to stop them from discriminating against their customers? That’s why Alliance Defending Freedom, alongside Boyden Grey PLLC, is challenging Airbnb in court.
Conservative investors shouldn’t have their proposals sidelined or “lost” because of their political beliefs.
The Heritage Foundation v. Airbnb
- December 2024: The Heritage Foundation and the American Conservative Values ETF submit shareholder proposals to Airbnb.
- April 2025: Airbnb releases its proxy ballot; neither Heritage’s nor ACVF’s proposals were included.
- June 2025: Alliance Defending Freedom, in partnership with Boyden Gray PLLC, filed a lawsuit against Airbnb in federal district court in Delaware.
Related Articles
