Exit to community : strategies for multi-stakeholder ownership in the platform economy

Abstract

The platform economy is facing a crisis of accountability. Large Internet platforms, once regarded as sources of hope for democratic social movements or engines of a promising new economy—or, at worst, just superficial distractions—are now facing serious public scrutiny across the globe. The executives of Facebook, Google, and Twitter have been called before the US Congress to account for their roles in enabling foreign election interference. Scholars have raised concerns about algorithmic, data-driven business models, the exploitation of digital labor, the abuse of market power, corporate governance failures, manipulation by oppressive governments, opacity and arbitrariness in content moderation, and corporate surveillance, to name just a few in an ever-growing body of literature on the depredations of the platform economy. This Article suggests that platform stakeholders, including its users, might find such a bloc through the tools offered by corporate ownership, and that founders and early investors in platform companies might see reasons to seek such an arrangement.