Apologies if this has been discussed already. I’ve searched but didn’t see anything.
I’ve heard today, from 2 SPs, that AW has told them they have to upload a full face picture without any blurring or covering or their account will be deactivated.
Both of them have had their accounts shut down in under 24 hours. It was a progressive thing with firstly their profiles being shown as inactive and being content providers only on the main site and a partial block on the mobile version, and then a complete deactivation.
It seems only to be for non-UK nationals at the moment.
I can imagine various reasons why they might be doing this, pimping, bait & switch, human trafficking etc but it’s happening to legitimate, fully verified, accounts.
It’s potentially quite dangerous if they force independents to publish face images or lose their main source of marketing / income.
Seriously bad news for punters as well if it takes huge numbers of non-UK SPs out of the simple AW search game.
It feels like this ought to be illegal, and is clearly discriminatory, but I can’t think of appropriate laws that would cover it.