To be fair, Rumble is a decent alternative. Some videos have millions of views, they basically accept anything that’s protected by the first amendment. A lot of banned creators have moved or are moving there.
That said, I’d still argue YouTube is “the commons”. Just like you can have multiple malls and a town square, there’s no real argument there should be a limit.
In a free society you’re free to speak in the commons. That doesn’t mean anyone has to listen. That said you can’t boot everyone you don’t like from the town square.
Social media posts can be made, doesn’t mean you have to follow or read.
... or share posts. The same applies to social-media-companies themselves. They don't have to "share" your post to anybody.
They have much the same rights and obligations as you do (especially if you believe that corporations are "people").
It is a different question as to are they monopolies and should the law do something about monopolies.
Social media companies' platforms are not "Town Square". How do we know that? Because tax-payers are not paying for their operations. Their share-holders are paying for that by retaining some or most of the revenues in the company.
> Social media companies' platforms are not "Town Square". How do we know that? Because tax-payers are not paying for their operations. Their share-holders are paying for that by retaining some or most of the revenues in the company.
This has already been litigated in American history. It’s called a “company town”. I also previously mentioned how you can have protected speech in places like malls (litigated in New York and Chicago).
Even for technical users, if you want to post a political video, is there really an alternative to YouTube with any audience for it?
Add to that platforms such as Facebook groups and Reddit subreddits, where the individual groups are much more like stalls and the platform is like the mall.