I wouldn't say it is amoral for them to attempt to protect themselves from anyone who was truly engaging in illegal activity which NYC might try to foist the liability for those Host's choices onto AirBnb. They need to create a narrative that it is just a few bad apples and they are empowering 'average people'.

Selfish? Sure. So is every other corporation on the planet.

I do think AirBnb should have been screening things better in the first place to prevent things from getting to this point. However, I'm sure that would have really slammed the breaks on their business model's growth.