I think where we have to be careful with going toward the latter idea is that not all social media platforms are general purpose, and that free expression inclu

I think where we have to be careful with going toward the latter idea is that not all social media platforms are general purpose, and that free expression includes a lot of unwanted content (spam, scams, off-topic posts, etc). Free expression isn’t something that can be realistically protected when a social media platform has an explicit purpose, code of conduct, and/or ideals. For example, an LGBTQ social media network has to be able to ban anti-LGBTQ content and users. Hacker News needs to be able to remove non-tech industry-related off-topic posts. /r/pcgaming needs to be able to remove posts about mobile gaming. Spam and unwanted self-promotion is often removed by moderators of social media outlets. Moderation is key to a workable social media experience. There’s also a lot of 100% legal free expression that platforms have to be able to choose not to host. Pornography is an common example. The thing that makes this topic difficult is that social media isn’t really pure person-to-person speech (e.g. like a person on soapbox) and it also isn’t really pure curated media (e.g. a television channel or news website published by an editor). It’s like a hybrid of the concepts.