We map platform harm
Turning your story into collective power for accountability
Every story becomes evidence.
Every pattern demands answers.
The Problem
Online, multi-sided platforms decide who gets seen, who gets paid, and who gets silenced — often through invisible algorithms and policies.
The Scale
More than 1 in 4 US workers participate in the gig economy, with over 1 in 10 relying on platform work for their primary income.
Edelman Intelligence (2024),
"Freelancing in America"
Yet these platforms increasingly act as private regulators of opportunity, controlling access to livelihoods without oversight or worker autonomy or protections.
What is at Stake
Platforms will continue to extract value without any kind of accountability, further consolidating control over...
Who can earn
Manipulating visibility and access to income across the digital economy
Who can participate
Suspending, shadowbanning, or erasing users through algorithmic and policy design
How work is defined
Setting labor standards, reputation systems, and risk allocation unilaterally
This is not an accident. Platforms have intentionally engineered systems that transfer power from worker autonomy to propriety algorithmic control—affecting millions of lives with no public oversight or democratic input.
Who We Are
Our Vision
We envision a digital economy grounded in platform transparency, where users can see how decisions are made and reclaim control over their own data and labor.
We amplify individual stories into collective power—holding platforms accountable to the communities they profit from.
Our Action
Platform Justice practices data activism: we turn individual experiences of sharing platform stories into collective power for exposing systemic harm. Our mission is to make the invisible visible, document real-world impacts, and return power to the people navigating digital systems they don't control but actively contribute to.
Most importantly, we're quantifying what platforms refuse to measure. Because what they won't track, they won't fix—and what they won't fix, we'll expose.
Why This
Matters Now
Today, there is no independent system that tracks platform harm across industries. We're changing that. We measure our impact by:
Stories documented that become evidence for policy change
Patterns exposed the systemic discrimination & harm
Communities connected who can organize collective responses
Policy interventions supported by community-generated data
What We're Building
Platform Justice is building a comprehensive public research ecosystem that transforms user experiences into collective evidence, isolated incidents into documented patterns, and hidden harms into public accountability, advocacy, and policy reform. Each tool below centers human impact and documents how platform decisions affect workers and platform contributors' economic security.
The Public Record
documents experiences
What if we understood the full scale of platform harm—who causes it and how it happens across platforms?
A real-time public database where users document the harm they face: shadowbans, account suspensions, lost wages, discriminatory treatment, and algorithmic suppression. Combined with data we gather from public sources, this creates an unprecedented view of platform behavior and its impact on real people.
Harm Maps
reveal patterns of harm
What if, instead market cap and growth, we measured platforms by the real-world impact they have on people?
Inspired by financial heatmaps, this tool visualizes where platform harm is concentrated—showing where user trust is declining, where enforcement is harshest, and which platforms are silently failing the communities that power them.
Gig Worker Registry
builds labor solidarity
What if we exposed more about the people who are most harmed—those that power the digital economy?
A secure repository where gig workers across platforms can document their experiences, connect with others in their region, and build local solidarity, pinpointing the demographics of who faces platform harm, creating both community support and evidence for labor organizing.
Legal Clinic
weaponizes evidence
What if affected users had access to legal expertise without the barriers of cost, complexity, or corporate arbitration clauses?
A community-based legal support network providing free or low-cost guidance to platform users facing harm. Powered by law students, public interest attorneys, and legal aid partners, this clinic helps users understand their rights, navigate platform disputes, and connect documented patterns of harm to potential legal action.
Community Forum
organizes support networks
What if affected users could connect to reduce isolation, share strategies, and organize collective action?
A moderated, safe space where people discuss platform harms, validate shared experiences, and develop responses together—without fear of further silencing or platform retaliation. This is where individual voices become collective strategy.
What We Mean By
Harm Design
Platform harm isn't just about algorithms gone wrong. We are especially interested in the gray areas—where harm is not just caused by an algorithm but by design.
Below are only some of the designed outcomes that contribute to harm that is unresolved, unaccounted, censored without explanation. Our current efforts are examining these and more.
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Shadowbanning
and unexplained drops in visibility
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Deactivations
and sudden account bans
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Price Suppression
and algorithmic wage suppression
Join the Movement
You’ve already taken the first step by being here. Now there are multiple ways to stay informed and support the push for fairer, more just digital accountability.
Share Your Story
We're documenting how platforms design invisibility and evade accountability—but we can only do this by building the evidence base that drives transparency and reform.
Have you been deactivated, underpaid, shadowbanned, or left without support ? You're not alone.
What happened to you was real. Your experience becomes evidence for change and your story helps others feel less alone.
Support Our Team
We're a growing team of legal experts, affected users, gig workers, designers, data researchers, and grassroots advocates all working towards building public accountability infrastructure all gig workers deserve.
Want to help us scale this work to reach more affected communities?
Support independent research that centers people over profit.
Partner With Us
We partner with researchers, journalists, legal clinics, policy organizations, and community groups, and mission-aligned funders who understand that platform harm requires collective response.
Are you working on platform accountability, digital rights, or labor justice?
Let's build the case for change together.
Stay Connected
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