MIAMI (AP) — Airbnb is suing the City of Miami, where officials threatened to crack down on hosts who publicly protested regulations prohibiting short-term rentals.
Airbnb and five individual hosts filed a lawsuit Friday in Miami-Dade County. They say the City of Miami violated the First Amendment rights of hosts who spoke up at a March 23 city commission meeting.
At that meeting, commissioners voted 3-2 to reaffirm zoning regulations prohibiting short-term rentals of single-family homes in Miami’s residential areas. City Manager Daniel Alfonso then said code compliance officials could start targeting Airbnb hosts who placed their names and addresses on the record to attend the meeting and protest those regulations.
Mayor Tomás Regalado, who opposes Airbnb, told The Miami Herald that Airbnb encouraged hosts to attend, knowing they would have to provide their names and addresses.
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