[throwawaysea]

Good. American technology companies have enjoyed a rules-free ride through economies and societies, both foreign and domestic. The power they hold, to control speech and influence people, is far too great. If they don't want to comply with the local law and government, then they can leave the market and let a local technology firm take their place. I see the advent of smaller local technology companies as a necessary move for other societies to retain their sovereignty and culture. Otherwise, the opinion shaping practiced by US tech companies is going to lead to cultural erasure as they impose their political values on the world.

As for examples of how social media companies in particular shape public opinion, consider how Twitter banned Zero Hedge for many months for alleging the virus may have leaked from a lab. Now this hypothesis is mainstream, potentially only because it no longer a political tool in an intense election year. A more recent example of opinion shaping/propaganda is Facebook classifying and limiting visibility of comments that express hesitancy about vaccines (https://www.projectveritas.com/news/breaking-facebook-whistl...). The plain reality is that these companies have government-like power in censoring and shaping public opinion, but are only accountable to themselves. That should be unacceptable to Americans, and doubly so to other nations.