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With every censored post, suspended account, or banned user, conservative and liberal populists renew their calls to regulate social media giants. They often make arguments from a monopolistic standpoint, that Big Tech companies have grown so large as to constitute public forums and, therefore, users have a constitutional right to access platforms free from viewpoint discrimination.
To an extent, they are right. A few social media companies have captured the lion’s share of the marketplace, and online influence is almost entirely dependent on access to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Big Tech critics argue that platform access is a civil right to the extent a user doesn’t engage in unlawful or unprotected speech. If denied access, they think a user ought to be able to obtain an injunction from a court and perhaps be awarded statutory damages.