The original purpose of the web and the internet, if you recall, was to build a common neutral network for everyone to participate in, equally and for the betterment of society. So what happened to this initial dream of the world wide web? Well, people soon realized that an easy way to create value on top of this neutral fabric was to build centralized services which gather, trap and monetize information. As a result, the internet, as we know it today is dominated by a number of large data silos. Search engines (e.g. Google), social networks (e.g. Facebook or Twitter), app stores (e.g. Apple) have helped to create powerful companies which provide centralized services and have set up walled gardens.
In that respect, AirBnB is no different. While AirBnB publicly broadcasts the trust data from its millions of users, it silos the contact information to prevent users from circumventing the platform as a central node. When guests message each other to exchange contact details to make direct payments, AirBnB edits out telephone numbers and email addresses. Rather than embracing the fact that its trust system would work autonomously and giving community members the freedom to transact however they wish, AirBnB chooses to exert its central platform authority. However, censorship has never worked for long and the company is thereby setting itself up for disruption.