The fact that so many people interpret platform moderation as "censorship" shows just how poorly the average person understands the fundamentals of free speech and the public sphere. So many people seem to have an 8th grader's understanding at best.
Forget the government vs private platform distinction; even with the legal right to free speech, "free" does not mean "absolute". Even in the US, free speech stops at a constitutionally drawn line, "imminent lawless action".
And that's a government. Platforms like Twitter are governed by another paradigm, that of the public sphere. A healthy public sphere is meritocratic, facts-based, inclusive, competitive, and representative. We don't have to be at 100% health but we can try for 51%.
Both of these points are valid but it still does not mean that the ban was "censorship", it only means the platforms need to be more consistent and more transparent.
https://twitter.com/Nanjala1/status/1348194172084260866
Like I said earlier we can be concerned about the power of Big Tech while still managing to think rigorously about the issues.
https://twitter.com/iyad_elbaghdadi/status/1347874017047437314
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