Consider these two patterns: 1. The owner of a website hosting user-generated content (such as social media posts) voluntarily bans users for speech the owner

Consider these two patterns: 1. The owner of a website hosting user-generated content (such as social media posts) voluntarily bans users for speech the owner didn't like. 2. A government forces the owner of a website hosting user-generated content to ban users for speech the government didn't like. Why and when is it reasonable to treat patterns 1 and 2 as sufficiently analogous to be counted under a single banner of "censorship"? Consider a third pattern as well. 3. A company offers tours of the buildings to outsiders who apply for tours. A tour visitor says something the owner doesn't like, so the owner voluntarily bans the visitor from continuing the tour. Is it reasonable to call pattern 3 censorship? And if it is, is the so-called censorship in pattern 3 "in the wrong", "no matter the circumstances"? Substack is a case of pattern 1. How should someone track which instances of Substack's moderation of XYZ ended up being "in the right" vs "in the wrong"? XYZ could be people who write in favor of Nazi beliefs (who Substack isn't banning). XYZ could be people who write in favor of sexual gratification (who Substack is banning). As Ken White (Popehat) wrote about Substack's policy regarding Nazis [1]: > My point is not that any of these policies is objectionable. But, like the old joke goes, we’ve established what Substack is, now we’re just haggling over the price. ... > Substack has made a series of value judgments about which speech to permit and which speech not to permit. Substack would like you to believe that making judgments about content “for the sole purpose of sexual gratification,” or content promoting anorexia, is different than making judgment about Nazi content. In fact, that’s not a neutral, value-free choice. It’s a valued judgment by a platform that brands itself as not making valued judgments. [1] https://popehat.substack.com/p/substack-has-a-nazi-opportunity https://popehat.substack.com/p/substack-has-a-nazi-opportuni...