The government should seize them, because their control over the spaces of public meeting and information exchange are a threat to democracy as proven by Jan 6. It should be illegal for them to have that much power. The law should be changed and the companies should be made public.

And which party will then control those platforms? Whichever one is in power, obviously. Let’s assume the Republicans manage to win the Presidency, both houses of Congress, and install another three Supreme Court justices, over the next 8-12 years.

Do you think it would be a good idea for THE MODERN DAY REPUBLICAN PARTY to have direct fucking control over these massive social media platforms? Please don’t tell me you think that’s anything other than a nightmare scenario.

Just for starters, imagine Marjorie Taylor Greene being appointed to a position where she can start deplatforming people on the newly public social media sites, for holding opinions she considers to be wrong. Imagine these people deploying AI tools to track people’s activities and send cops to their doors, when the system suspects they might have committed crimes. That way, they can have their voting rights taken away, and the next election will be even easier.

Imagine right-wing propagandists being in DIRECT CONTROL of all the social media algorithms, without even having to make any backroom deals. Is this looking like a dumb fucking idea to you, yet?

If you think January 6th is a good reason for social media platforms to be kept out of the hands of right-wing terrorists, then WHY ARE YOU ADVOCATING FOR A GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER OF THOSE PLATFORMS? The fucking terrorists are already in the government. From where we’re sitting right now, as of the time I’m writing this, I figure there’s about a 38 percent chance that Trump will win the Presidency, and at LEAST maintain the status quo, within the rest of the elected government.

Even if they’re held off this time, what about the future? If social media platforms are taken by the government and made into public utilities, there will always be that danger of them being controlled directly by the government. Instead, I’m simply advocating for people to REMEMBER THAT SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS ARE NOT THE SAME THING AS THE INTERNET.

As someone else pointed out, in a reply to my comments, the current state of cloud technology has actually made it cheaper and easier than ever to make “alternative” platforms, outside the “mainstream” social media structure that currently exists. Right now, it’s easy to go out and make your own website. You can connect to the Fediverse, you can make your own platform for any purpose, and all of that access is currently guaranteed, basically as a utility.

Do you think that guarantee would still exist, after a government takes over the social media platforms? Of course not. A corrupt government wouldn’t just be satisfied with controlling the existing platforms. They’d enact laws to restrict hosting of new platforms, monitor internet traffic in general, and generally make it impossible to speak on the Internet without their approval.