Twitter hides Donald Trump tweet for “glorifying violence”

So I have a question about this. Does free speech apply to platforms like Facebook and Twitter? I would have thought that a website owner has a choice about the content of their website, even if that content is user generated. Surely they could remove any tweet they wanted and not be sued?

It depends. And the problem that people have is that social media companies want to be both publishers and platforms.

For example, T-Mobile is a platform. They aren't responsible for anything you say when on the phone, using their network.

CNN is a publisher. They are responsible for anything that gets posted on their website, and can get sued accordingly.

Social media companies want to choose what is posted on their website, but also not be held responsible for anything that is posted on their website. They want the perks of being a publisher, and the perks of being a platform.

Obviously there are arguments made on both sides. But that is the general disagreement, if I understand correctly.

perhaps there aren't two sides.. that there is a genuine third form: the publisher-platform -- one which best describes both how these platforms do operate, and how they should do so.

When you have billions of users wanting to post content you can hardly be a publisher in any traditional sense; nor will the gov./society/users let you be a platform.