BANGKOK: When anIndian customer of online food delivery service Zomato tweeted that he hadcancelled his order because it had been assigned to a non-Hindu worker, and hisrequest for a Hindu denied, thousands weighed in. "Food doesn't have areligion. It is a religion," Zomato responded in a tweet that garneredabout 95,000 likes and thousands of comments that supported and criticized thecompany's stance.
Last month'sincident was among a long series of allegations of discrimination related toreligion, race, gender or sexual orientation in the so-called gig economy thatalso includes ride hailing apps Uber and Ola, and home-sharing platform Airbnb.The platforms are credited with creating millions of jobs, giving homeowners anadditional income, and providing mobility in underserved areas and for womenwho fear harassment on public transport.
Yet they are alsoresponsible for entrenching biases and deepening socio-economic divides incities, and increasing the vulnerability of minority communities, according toanalysts. "There is now ample evidence of racial discrimination on gigeconomy platforms, and I would not be at all surprised to see religiousdiscrimination also," said Don MacKenzie, an assistant professor at theUniversity of Washington in Seattle.
"Theconsequences of this discrimination fall hardest on those who are discriminatedagainst, but may also have social consequences for cities in general,"said MacKenzie, who has studied racial discrimination at ride-hailing apps.More than a third of the global workforce will be in the gig economy by 2023 -according to Australian recruitment agency Robert Half, and other industryexperts - with independent workers contracted for short-term jobs such as fooddelivery and car rides.
Governments arestruggling to keep pace with the industry's rapid growth, and its informalnature means that it is harder to enforce anti-discriminatory regulations orsocial protections. Uber and Ola did not respond to requests for comment."Zomato's core values have no place for prejudice and intolerance,"the company said in a statement.
Implicitsegregation
MacKenzie's studyin Seattle and Boston found "significant evidence" of racialdiscrimination, with black riders and those with "black-sounding"names facing longer wait times and more cancellations than white riders orthose with white-sounding names. Drivers discriminated by not going to certainneighborhoods; by declining bookings from certain types of passengers orcancelling bookings; and by leaving low ratings based on race, gender, orsocio-economic status, it showed.
"Ifdiscrimination deters certain classes of individuals from using a platform,then that platform will support fewer transactions," MacKenzie told theThomson Reuters Foundation. "The thinner market that results could meanfewer options for remaining users, leading to longer wait times for a ride, forexample." Workers also suffer: the "Uberisation" of India'sdomestic-work market has entrenched informality, insecurity and discrimination,and excluded those without smartphones, the London-based Overseas DevelopmentInstitute said in a report.
There is also alack of transparency around algorithms used to assess and rank workers, andallocate work, said Alysia Blackham, an associate professor at Melbourne LawSchool. "Discrimination is potentially rife in the gig economy," shesaid in a recent paper. Examples of discrimination abound from New York toMumbai. An Indian user of Ola said he cancelled a ride because the driver wasMuslim. In another incident last year, an Ola driver refused to take a customerto his destination because it was in a Muslim neighborhood.
Ola said at thetime it did not condone choosing drivers based on their religious background,or discrimination by its drivers. In another incident that went viral on socialmedia last year, an Uber driver in New York was kicked off the app after heasked a lesbian couple to leave the car. Uber said its guidelines did not allowdrivers to discriminate or refuse to provide services based on a person's race,color, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity.
Airbnb has facedcomplaints and lawsuits over racial bias, and even a social media protest,#AirbnbWhileBlack. A 2016 study by Harvard University professors found requestsfrom guests with distinctively African-American names were 16% less likely tobe accepted than those from identical guests with white names. "In cities,there is already implicit segregation in housing and in labour markets alongthe lines of race, religion and caste," said Aditi Surie, a seniorassociate with the Indian Institute for Human Settlements. "Theseplatforms entrench the biases and divides."
Behavior change
Cities have foundways to work around some biases. In San Francisco, long before ride-hailingapps, "homobiles" offered a safe option to LGBT+ members frustratedwith being denied rides or fearful of being attacked. In several Indian cities,minority religious groups that were denied homes, set up their own housingenclaves. But with more transactions moving online, the on-demand economyexerts enormous influence on how residents in cities live, work, eat andinteract with each other, said Surie.
While thecompanies have fairly strong non-discrimination policies, enforcement isdifficult, said MacKenzie. "Legislation and regulation may have a role toplay. Another option is to implement stronger penalties for parties who cancela transaction," he said. Other suggestions to eliminate bias includelimiting the data available - such as numbers rather than names, no profilephotographs - and prioritizing minority communities and underserved areas.
Airbnb partneredwith the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) toadd more black hosts. Zomato added an LGBTQIA-friendly tag for restaurants onits app. As governments struggle to keep pace with the fast evolving industry,the platforms themselves may be best positioned to force change, said Surie."They have changed consumer behavior so quickly, and they have the powerto change it further. Perhaps that's the better way to battle bias," shesaid. - Reuters