I think those fears are entirely understandable - but this is the system working as intended. The problem is not that social media is allowed to do what it does

I think those fears are entirely understandable - but this is the system working as intended. The problem is not that social media is allowed to do what it does (i.e. give everyone a platform); the problem is that capital has warped the public realm such that a handful of gigantic social media corporations have captured a substantial proportion of the world's attention. The solution is, imo, to break those corporations up - to ensure competition and to break open these walled gardens which allow nonsense to thrive. I would seriously hazard against any attempt to restrict individual freedoms regarding free speech. The US, for all its problems - is significantly better than many countries on earth in terms of the ability for any random citizen to say what they like without fear of retribution. Granting politicians and mega-corporations the right and ability to effectively negate entire sets of views and opinions will only ultimately benefit the worst people on earth. It's a tricky problem but to my mind the issue is one of forcing capitalism to fulfil its promise; competition is the key to preventing tyranny in a capitalist system.