I think you're way way way overthinking this. The bottom line is that an online service can ban any user for any reason, period. Just because a service is popular doesn't mean that you have a right to use it. If you don't like how a company operates their business, then you can start a boycott or use a competitor.
> the world handing them the reigns.
Nobody is handing anyone the reigns. Patreon didn't even exist a few years ago, and now we're debating whether or not free speech is in peril because someone was banned from it. It's the same thing with people who get incensed over twitter bans... who cares? These are just arbitrary business... these things just don't really matter.
"The bottom line is that an online service can ban any user for any reason, period. "
Agreed.
And the govt (US and EU) can break them up whenever they they attain market monopoly. Or governments (every other one) can decide they've had enough with arbitrary content control by foreigners and ban their service within their borders.
Which is fine, really. I dont b%^h about FB and friends kicking someone out of their service. I expect the enlightened not to b^&h when countries ban services they like.
The Internet as we knew it in the 90s is dead. Time to get over it.
FB, Twitter and Patreon are not the internet of the 90s. The internet as we knew it in the 90s is exactly the same today as it was back then and there were plenty of people receiving subjectively applied bans on various PHPb forums.
The key difference being they were usually banning accounts, not people. Many platforms are now linked to a real world identity, which I guess is unavoidable if you want to monetize your persona/face on YouTube/Facebook/Patreon, but it leaves less room for working around the system by making a new account.
> the world handing them the reigns.
Nobody is handing anyone the reigns. Patreon didn't even exist a few years ago, and now we're debating whether or not free speech is in peril because someone was banned from it. It's the same thing with people who get incensed over twitter bans... who cares? These are just arbitrary business... these things just don't really matter.