Unlike many libertarians, I think that big-tech is indeed acting unconstitutionally. That's because, I don't think companies like Facebook are acting independently, but as an agent of the state. It's no different than if the deep-state hired private contractors to intimidate and silence me. The fact that they are private actors is irrelevant.
Also, the left tries to use the fact that they are private actors as a bludgeon instrument to shut us up. But the truth is, even if that is so, we still have a right to call them out as being assholes who deserve to get their ass kicked.
However, unlike many other people, I personally think big tech is doing us a favor. Alternative platforms, and decentralized technologies have sprung up everywhere. All of these entrenched tech companies have the unenviable task of shutting down the free flow of information just as the information age is blowing up out of control. It is not only unworkable, but as decentralized technology improves and the size of the network grows, the cost of trying to impose internet censorship grows exponentially.
There's also the creativity angle.
Some of the best art of the twentieth century benefited from having limitations imposed on it, forcing the artists to get even more creative to sidestep those limitations.
As an example, look at films like the original Ghostbusters, Robocop, etc, which had numerous budgetary and technical limitations, but because the people involved were all passionate and devoted, they made something great, not to mention songs about drug use in the sixties and seventies which came up with clever euphemisms to sidestep FCC rules regarding depictions or glorification of drug use.
I've a pet theory that one of the best ways to help an artist grow is to put some sort of impedance on him/her, forcing them to be more creative to overcome that impedance and making better art along the way.
Yeah the limitations part is why I've grown to like slightly older video games. Sorry i don't think that was your point but it reminded me of this. It's just that with less computing power devs had to work with those limitations but that medium is growing stale.
Nah, it's a good example, I just hadn't thought of it, lol.
The big blocker is payment systems. Any alt-tech platform that tries to go against the grain gets their infrastructure (hosting, domain registrar, DDOS mitigation, email, payments, etc) leaned on by the usual activists. This is highly effective in shutting down many alternative services after they achieve some base level of popularity and get on the radar screen.
I believe that various crypto technologies will largely solve this in the long-run, but it's going to be a while before you can easily run a business without being blocked by the usual suspects at MasterCard, PayPal, etc.
At this point i don't care what the libertarian arguments are about monopolies or whatever. I say tear down big tech. Peter Schiff recently spoke about the Facebook anti trust lawsuit. I think many agree with me based on the comments on the youtube comment section of that one.