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Comment by jhall1468 | Hacker News Reader

It's not Airbnb's responsibility to enforce the law. Full stop.

Demonstrating compliance with the law can be and often is a legal requirement itself.

There aren't any laws here for Airbnb to comply with. That's my point: the regulations are on the hosts. If the Government wants to regulate Airbnb, they need to pass legislation that requires Airbnb to do something. Exactly as they did with YouTube via DMCA.

You are just incorrect. For example, Airbnb was required to comply with host registration and caps on short stay rentals in San Francisco (e.g. discussed in [0]). Airbnb is legally required to demonstrate its own compliance, separately from what laws govern hosts themselves.

It seems premature to claim whether Airbnb is subject to more laws like this or not. Many cities have enacted new regulations or sued Airbnb over failures to comply with existing laws, and it seems like a complex legal issue still in the midst of being hashed out.

[0]: https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Airbnb-loses-th...

Dude, that was my entire point. Airbnb was required, via legislation, to do something, thus they are doing it. Advocating that they do something without being required to is what I'm commenting on.

I think we’re talking past one another. Nobody is saying Airbnb must demonstrate compliance with laws they are not subject to. Instead, I’m saying they might be required to demonstrate compliance with existing laws (not special new laws) if various city-led lawsuits against them end up revealing that Airbnb had been subject to various types of regulation all along (despite Airbnb’s insistence to the contrary).

So ebay doesn't have to prevent people from selling illegal guns? YouTube doesn't have to prevent people from illegally distributing copyrighted material?

Both of those exist because regulators forced them to. The suggestion here, apparently, is that Airbnb should just do it out of the kindness of their heart. If the government wants more oversight, regulate them.

There are many jurisdictions where this is an extremely dangerous assumption. Knowingly facilitating illegal transactions is often a crime.

Do you have a case where Airbnb is being charged with doing that?

"“It will potentially require home-sharing sites like Airbnb and their hosts to comply with local hospitality rules in every city in the United States,” Stemler told PacerMonitor. “It could also make home sharing sites responsible under the Civil Rights Act and the American with Disabilities Act. They would also have to comply with just about any law or restriction that a local government maintains pertaining to hotels.”"

https://www.pacermonitor.com/articles/2018/08/02/airbnb-host...

It's not a murderer's responsibility to stop themselves from murdering people. Full stop.

What a dumb response. Airbnb isn't going to do something it's not required to. Suggesting that they have a moral responsibility to enforce the law on hosts is silly. If you want them to build a system that assists law enforcement, pass legislation that requires they do.

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