[cromwellian]

How about being able to swing public sentiment by

a) funding a massive 50 cent army b) censoring any information the state does not want you to see c) jailing anyone who say the wrong thing with their data d) controlling pretty much your entire life through the social credit system

You guys are drawing lots of false equivalences. Streamers in China have been 'disappeared' for weeks for offenses as harmless as singing the national anthem badly, or saying nice things about Taiwan.

When tech companies start doing this, maybe we'll have an equivalence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbTXb6bEMfI

[skummetmaelk]

This is not about China. This is about you saying Google having this power is preferable to any government because they are more responsible or whatever.

That is a false choice. The government will always have the power. In a democracy it must be held accountable for that power by its citizens.