The big misconception about Big Tech censorship is that all the deplatforming, shadow banning and unpersoning we’ve seen on the major platforms in recent years is all part of some nefarious plot — that the oligarchs presiding over Facebook, Twitter et al were always desperate to seize control of the information sphere in order to bend it to their own political will. There’s a bit of that going on — certainly from the lower-ranking, blue-haired nerds who go into open revolt from time to time because their bosses refuse to tighten the screws even further. But a lot of the tech bros are just weak-kneed, unprincipled capitalists, terrified of bad PR, keen to protect their mega-wealth, willing to bend to any cultural-elite edict and lacking any discernible principles to stop them.