“We want to be good partners to everyone,” claims Airbnb, the digital behemoth now valued at $31 billion. It likes to depict itself as a small grassroots community organization, just doing its bit for the collaborative economy. But despite platitudes of “partnering with cities” and working with local communities, Airbnb has spent millions lobbying the European Union, suing local councils, and fighting attempts by cities to protect affordable housing.

The news headlines of Airbnb’s tax avoidance, exploitative labor practices, and monopolisitic tendencies are bad enough. But they’re all by-products of a more fundamental issue: platforms like this were never intended to provide a public good — they were designed to maximize profit.

Some insist the answer lies in more competition within the tech sector, through antitrust laws. Yet such calls for a government-regulated market don’t get to the heart of the matter. Better regulated tech giants would still exercise disproportionate influence over policy making and put their own financial gain ahead of the interests of local communities.