Thought-provoking piece, as ever, and much of which I agree with. Re: the private companies argument. The argument is not simply that Big Tech are private companies and thus can do as they wish. The argument is that users consent to their Terms of Service, and thus become complicit in their own deplatforming. Which brings me to the “truly free person” argument in your conclusions — which, again, I agree with. The caveat, however, is that we are not truly free on these platforms because, again, we consent to abide by the rules laid down in the Terms of Service. Thus, we consent to our freedom being delimited. To my mind, that is the pickle. The real question thus becomes, how do we convince Big Tech to change their ToS so we can be truly free? Until we find a solution for that vexing problem, deplatforming can, and will, continue. Breaking them up and making them public utilities might be one step towards achieving that goal. But given the established relationship between these firms and government (as you point out in this piece), I wonder how that can occur. Petition the firms? Organize a mass exodus? Petition government? All three? Something else? I’m all ears.