Kijiji Canada has banned the email user who posted an ad to its website refusing to rent a Prince Albert house to “Indians.”
The Internet advertising company says they sent an email to the individual advising that person of the ban, but the ban could be lifted.
Kijiji’s Shawn McIntyre says they have not received a response from the advertiser.
“We may consider letting them back on if they agree not to do anything of this nature again,” says McIntyre. “ At this point that person is blocked from posting until we hear from them.”
McIntyre say they don’t have the name of the person who posted the ad only an email address.
A Regina woman complained about the Prince Albert Kijiji advertisement last weekend.
Jeanne Labelle says Kijiji needs a better filtering system because that type of ad would not have made it in a mainstream newspaper.
McIntyre says the way the ad was worded did not trigger their filtering system.
“We do have a very sophisticated filtering system unfortunately the wording in this ad was fairly innocuous, using words like native which necessarily doesn’t mean anything negative and can be used in a different context as well.”
Kijiji responded via email to Labelle writing the ad was indeed offensive, not to mention against the law.
McIntyre says police have not contacted Kijiji about the advertisement.