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I understand your point of view (I think). I don't think there is a easy solution. Personally, I am just against getting the government involved. Everything they touch goes to crap, one of the few things where that works out is the military where everything they touch is supposed to turn to crap...(just making a joke, but you know what I mean)

I read a good article today at American Thinker titled A Solution to Internet Tyranny which is kind of how I have viewed the problem for some time.

The author makes the distinction between a "Platform" and a "Publisher", and does it in a way I find kind of attractive, and spells out why Twitter, YouTube, and others are, and should be "Platforms" and why the distinction is important.

I read it, and felt it went somewhere down the middle between your view and mine (if I understand your view correctly) and seemed to be able to straddle it in a way that worked for me.

The author states: "...The simple technique that can be used to end the censorship is to have DoJ interpret existing law, or for Congress to pass a law, stating that any Internet site that controls its content for any reason other than criminal activity is a publisher, not a platform..."

Of course, anyone with an ounce of skepticism might look at that and say that the rub is deciding what is "criminal activity", but given that most of us here (though not all) already look at things such as speech as non-criminal.

Most real conservatives tend to look at someone who says "I hate minority X, and don't think they are worthy of this or that" and think "I don't agree with that, but he has the right to say it" because we abhor the concept of "Thought Crimes" or "Hate Crimes". Leftists, on the other hand, have shown great enthusiasm for those kind of things. That said, I still think it makes the cleavage point easier. Saying "I think minority X sucks" is quite easily distinguishable from "I want to kill minority X".

Granted, I am not thrilled about harnessing the power of Land Sharks (Lawyers) since we already live in a highly litigious society, but on the other hand, it does harness the profit motive in a way that might cause those tech giants give thought to what they are doing.

If you get a chance, I would be interested to hear your views on the linked article. I think this is a very difficult issue, and I am still at the stage where I am cogitating on it and trying to absorb how other people feel about it.

I don't want to address the issue of an unnatural proliferation of the Spotted Blotworm (Internet censorship) by bringing in a foreign animal like the Striped Laxtrax Wasp (Government intrusion) that eats them, only to discover the Striped Laxtrax are much more destructive and harder to eradicate.