"Make your own platform." That worked well for Parler and Gab, right? Let's be honest, the people who are pressuring big tech companies and others to deplatform and censor their political adversaries are doing so because they want to deny any power to those they disagree with. It won't stop with social media companies, because then they go to the app store vendors. It won't stop with app store vendors because then they go to the hosting providers. And from there it will undoubtedly go to backbone carriers. And ultimately to power utilities. And they'll be denied payment processing and other financial services.

At some point, this line of thinking will culminate in jailing dissidents and denying them basic services like public transportation. Wait that's already happening, with transit unions asking to create no ride lists (https://www.cato.org/blog/transit-unions-dhs-give-america-no...). And the supporters of such policies actually feel they hold the moral high ground to criticize the CCP for social credit scores.

I also don't get why people keep claiming "you don't get to do X with a private business". We regulate private business all the time. If you disagree, then lift all the COVID restrictions and let every business open up. Or remove regulations from existing utilities, from airlines, from financial services, etc. Or let a private business refuse to bake a cake. Otherwise, drop this trope because it is trite and unhelpful.

Ultimately the reason why the "private company" argument does not work is because there is no real choice or competition at all for the tech companies. First, social media companies have little competition due to the moats of their network effects. Second, to the extent there is competition (say between Apple and Google's app stores/mobile phone platforms), there is indirect collusion because these companies all exist in Silicon Valley and reflect the political culture of their headquarters - which is why they make the same decisions on the same day. Third, Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and likely others are way too big and in a sane world would need to be broken up on anti-trust grounds. Fourth, Facebook and Twitter are the public's digital town square. The mere technicality of them being private is a poor excuse for recognizing their role as a public utility. They should be regulated to carry all speech that is not explicitly illegal.