Social media companies must be allowed to do policing this way only if they abide by the national laws pertaining to freedom of expression. I mean, if a company

Social media companies must be allowed to do policing this way only if they abide by the national laws pertaining to freedom of expression. I mean, if a company wants to list as a social media company where people share information, and they also do policing, they must be answerable to local courts if they take down posts using their judgement which goes against the established freedom laws of the land, without hiding behind the garb of being a private enterprise etc and saying that its their prerogative to manage their platform as they please. I don't know if such a thing is already in place. The companies are having a knee jerk reaction to the misuse by public, and like all KJR this is heading the wrong way. The fact that the companies whose primary aim it to maximize profits are taking it upon themselves to do these sort of ethically and legally questionable activities itself will lead to bad ramifications. One obvious solution to controlling fake news is to remove the invisibility cloak of users by forcing them, by law, to use government issued ID to authenticate their accounts. This should make people more responsible before sharing misinformation. However, the fragility of technology that would lead to abusing authenticated user accounts is a big enough concern to put the onus on the companies. I don't care if the companies "employs executives who are thoughtful about the task of making their platforms less toxic while protecting freedom of speech" or use third party authenticating sources, or some fancy AI/ML, but unless they are forced to abide by the laws, things will only worsen. Whether they like it or not, social media companies are now entangled in social and legal aspects and have to deal with all that comes with it. They have enjoyed exponential growth in profits, now its time to get real.