Mindmeld, I side with all Democrats and Republicans who think it is time to bring the tech companies to heel and force them to respect 1st amendment rights, as well as regulate them to ensure they don't engage in censorship. This is where I have to disagree with your sentiment. One of the reasons why tech companies are engaged in such censorship is because politicians are putting the heat on them.
Democrats in particular want Facebook, Google, etc. to censor "hate speech" and "fake news." Of course, we all know what the left's definition of "hate speech" and "fake news" is.
As for Republicans, there are very few that actually fight for an open, relatively uncensored forum. Even Trump would rather err on the side of censorship, given how much he hates what he considers to be "fake news."
By the way, the life of a Facebook censor is a pretty sad one. Read this when you get a chance:
The secret lives of Facebook moderators in America
As you can see, policing social media is an overwhelming task. The only way to get a handle on it is one of two ways:
1) The Chinese method, where you just use a big hammer and perform mass censorship.
2) The libertarian method, where you err on the side of less censorship, and you only go after clear, egregious cases of threats, harassment, or violence.
Tenchusatsu |