[leggomuhgreggo]

The more worrisome "inversion of speech" would seem to be that institutions have the same free speech rights as humans.

Social media platforms are increasingly akin to the pubic forums of old, where essentially all meaningful exchange of ideas takes place — and where excommunication functions like "free speech zones" designed to marginalize and render the exercise of political expression inert.

I would suggest a relevant precedent might be laws limiting media ownership.

I'd also point out that institutions of a certain size exercise control over human in a similar way to governments — and the "private business" distinction becomes increasingly blurry when we consider how deeply these companies collide with law enforcement and govt agencies to censor information.

It's a complicated topic!

[Barrin92]

The problem with that comparison seems to me that old public forums did engage in plenty of restrictions. if Facebook functioned like the Ecclesia, these rules would apply[1]

    Do keep to the subject being discussed.
    Do treat each subject separately.
    Do not address the same subject twice in the same day.
    Do not be insulting and invective towards a fellow citizen.
    Do avoid slandering a fellow citizen.
    Do not interrupt the proceedings by standing up or shouting or speaking on anything that is not in order.
    Do not lay hands on the presiding officers or interfere with their duties.

"The Board of Presidents were authorized to impose a fine of up to 50 drachmas* to anyone who violated the above rules." (that's about two months of salary).

In fact funnily enough the ancient Board of Presidents is really not that different from Facebook's community oversight board. You will not find any public assembly in history that did not enact rules of conduct and excluded offenders if necessary.

[1]https://studyingreece.edu.gr/7-rules-of-public-speaking-in-a...

[leggomuhgreggo]

I dig the historical context!

My (perhaps sloppy) comparison with respect to public forums wasn't meant to be specific to Ancient Roman strictures, but that's solid trivia.

Perhaps the closer analogue would be modern public spaces in the US — although that too only goes so far.