eBay Ethics

Abstract

In their efforts to construct a stable and secure digital marketplace eBay designers may have also created a workable template for an efficient neo-liberal social enclave. At one level, the business ethic on the internet’s largest auction site has the appearance and feel of honest, timely commodity exchange. With all the panoptic controls now in place, it is difficult to do otherwise, lest one risk being banned from eBay altogether. This article describes the key features of eBay’s user interface and argues that particularly in digital contexts, top-down (i.e. corporate, quasi-governmental, administrative) entities can very effectively enhance their abilities to rationalize and control an otherwise seemingly democratic, bottom-up, and peer-to-peer situation. The study also highlights important relationships between the concepts of citizen, consumer, and socio-political actor today, and speculates into the significance these various roles might play in a full-fledged digital democracy of tomorrow.