[mieseratte]

> but the law in the US and UK (for example) is that you are free to refuse service to anyone you please as long as it is not illegal discrimination (e.g. in the UK, race or sexual orientation).

There is more to discrimination law, including "gotchas" like adverse impact.

> or they will have to be controlled in a way similar to what China does in order to keep decisions on censorship, exclusion, and provision of service within public hands.

The Western nations seem more concerned with who and what is banned from a platform, the Chinese the opposite, banning speech the Party doesn't like and, perhaps more in line with the West, leveraging these companies as intelligence assets.

In this way, the Silicon Valley companies themselves are more like the Chinese whereas the current administration less so.

[mytailorisrich]

The point is that access to many platforms has become important enough that private companies should not be the ones calling the shots. This includes access to service and censorship.

I fear that we have opened the pandora box and now the alternatives are those I mentioned.

> There is more to discrimination law, including "gotchas" like adverse impact.

Not in the UK, unless mandated by law in specific industries.

[mieseratte]

> I fear that we have opened the pandora box and now the alternatives are those I mentioned.

I don't know that we've opened the box so much as we've built or otherwise inherited a system that allows for what we have now. No reason we can't legally preclude social-media companies from excluding based on their arbitrary and capricious criteria.

> Not in the UK, unless mandated by law in specific industries.

I was talking about the US, specifically. Honestly a bit weird to group the two together in the first place, being very different countries.

[mytailorisrich]

> No reason we can't legally preclude social-media companies from excluding based on their arbitrary and capricious criteria.

And thus social media, and other platforms, are controlled or at least heavily regulated by the government.