Over the past decade, we have had an increasingly vocal debate about the responsibility of platforms as these online intermediaries play an essential role in enabling access to information and products as well as driving economic growth and innovation. The influential role of platforms in modern society has become the focus of a host of public policies.
There are concerns about the growing prevalence of heavy-handed approaches to intermediary regulation around the globe and their consequences. Meanwhile, we are confronted with quite a few unanswered fundamental questions: who should be responsible for the information, services, and products on platforms - platforms themselves, consumers, merchants, or regulators? To what extent should they assume such responsibility? Under what theoretical framework should that happen?
