[dilap]

Absent the ability to the split the universe and do a proper experiment, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree about likely wider impacts of places like FB engaging in political censorship.

If you read carefully, you'll notice I'm not making claims one way or the other about the goodness of the censorship. I think a rising demand for censorship is a predictable reaction to technology enhancing the power of speech.

I would not say trend of speech restriction is limited to social media giants. E.g., the US is attempting to extradite and prosecute Julian Assange under the Espionage Act, which, if successful, will, in the words of the NY Times, "open the door to criminalizing activities that are crucial to American investigative journalists who write about national security matters".