Responsibility for Platform Problems: A Normative Analysis of the Harms and Injustices Induced by Peer-to-Peer Platforms Uber and Airbnb

Peer-to-peer platforms have opened up a whole new realm of exchanges that were not feasible before their emergence. They allow people to grant strangers access to their personal assets, such as living space, car seats, power drills or a knack for assembling furniture.

The most prominent exemplars of successful peer-to-peer platforms are Uber and Airbnb. These two platforms increasingly press their marks on people, cities and the economy―for the good and for the bad. Indeed, Uber and Airbnb offer significant benefits, mostly in the form of welfare and autonomy. Yet they also raise serious concerns. Airbnb propels ‘touristification’ of city districts, negatively impacting residents’ quality of life. Uber, in turn, subjects drivers to labor injustice given its modus operandi of exercising tight control while failing to insulate drivers from risks.

In this dissertation, I set out to explore how we should respond to these platform problems. I identify promising policy options and I assess the effectiveness of these interventions, taking account of possible unintended effects and practical constraints. Further, I devote special attention to matters of fairness in the distribution of burdens that policies entail. Crucially, I propose that a distribution of burdens is fair if it tracks attributions of moral responsibility―whence I engage in in-depth analyses of the notion of moral responsibility and of the nitty gritty of how platforms work. I find that both Uber and Airbnb as well as (some of) their users bear particular forms of responsibility for the platform problems of concern. Ultimately, my analysis brings out that sustainably addressing any problem pushes for balancing between effectiveness, freedom, and fairness―which may be difficult up to the point that making value tradeoffs is inescapable.