Many of the problems faced by Facebook, Youtube and others is that they own the digital commons and manage and curate it for the people trying to communicate wi

Many of the problems faced by Facebook, Youtube and others is that they own the digital commons and manage and curate it for the people trying to communicate with one another. These issues come up for companies whose business models are deciding what people should see and hear. This makes them incredibly powerful, but it brings them into the bog. This isn't a new problem, other than internet scale. Media companies have long - in having to decide what news to print - been faced with content moderation. Finally, content moderation is inherently political. ModSquad - one of many booming companies in the social media moderation space - serves the US State Department, who makes no bones about the fact that it uses all elements of national power to affect what populations think and what access to information they have (it also runs the Bureau of International Information Programs - the State Department half of the US propaganda programme). Like newspapers, TV shows, cable companies, and radio programs before it - this new media sees itself filtering content for the public - with all of the complexities, power, and grief that entails.