1) Let's just cut the bullshit and get to the heart of the Trump ban: If there's anything "Orwellian" about all of this, it's the right re-framing the for-profit, privately-controlled "free market of ideas" they have relentlessly pushed for decades as "leftism" and "anti-speech."

2) In the US, we watched as policy meant to protect against excessive concentration of corporate ownership of media was stripped away; we watched in Europe as media markets were "de-regulated" and public broadcasting came under attack as "distorting" markets.

3) The entire ideological conservative zeitgeist of this era was (and still is) that the privately-owned corporate sector was better qualified and better structured to have control over the flow of news and information in society. To break free from regulation and state control.

4) And, who were the people warning us about the excessive power of centralized corporate control over media and information, and the danger for the future? Trumpites? Republicans? European Conservatives? No. It was people like academics and the political left.

5) And, you will have to remind me of the names of the US conservatives who expressed concern over the tax breaks given to tech when that industry exploded into a multi-billion dollar industry, making a great many people wealthy. Because, I don't recall any.

6) A good argument can also be made that the power of Twitter and Facebook in the information ecology is linked to the re-regulation, commercialization and subsequent entertainment/conflict orientation of news and information in Europe and the US.

7) So, after a relentless push to hand informational power over to the private sector, the political right is now wetting its collective pants over Trump being banned by a privately-owned company that the same political right preached should be trusted to make these decisions.

8) To make hypocrisy of the right even more explicit, Trump clearly violated the terms of service he signed up to when he got his Twitter account. So, apparently the conservative mantra of "personal responsibility" has also been forgotten in this whirlpool of "Orwell" bullshit.

9) Trump was banned from Twitter for violating its terms. For decades and decades in the US, minorities, anti-war activists, environmentalists, anti-poverty spokespeople, labor activists were (and are) frozen out of "liberal" mainstream media debate on purely ideological grounds.

10) Twitter has been a gold-mine for Trump, and Trump a gold-mine for Twitter. His ban came days before he leaves, and only after events in DC. Facebook traffic is largely driven by right-wing content, with the most-shared material overwhelmingly pro-Trump. "Leftist" angle is BS.

11) The "leftist social media" myth now merged with the "leftist mainstream media" myth to form a "leftist media ecosystem" myth. This way, all criticism waived off as ideologically-driven. And, it positions multi-billion dollar corporate owners as leftist. There's your Orwell.

12) Is social media power a problem? Yes. Just like power of Fox News, CNN, all corporate media. That's what researchers have said for decades. Researchers framed by the right as naive, free market-hating Marxists. Now it's free market framed as Marxist. There's Orwell. Again.

13) Pushing de-regulation of media markets. Enabling increased corporate ownership. Marginalizing or de-funding few remaining non-commercial alternatives (eg public service broadcasting). Then playing the victim of corporate power? You're not Winston Smith. You're Big Brother.

14) Finally, for those interested or challenging my point, I outline my argument against the "Liberal Media" myth here. https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/11/16/its-2020-dangerous-myth-about-so-called-liberal-media-still-going-strong?utm_campaign=echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR3-oBpKjkekS_HQ2HjgRZPDrsxbhxtcHKZDFatkqH75cBN2pMzgLGHF4vU#Echobox=1605558775