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Thanks Andrew. You could add your essay as a full article using one of the other options in the Respond menu at top right. Your content can be edited using full word-processor-like features, including embedding images and video. Get in touch with me if you would like a bit of a run through of that.

You raise a good point in saying it is not just a matter of the apparent political bias of the social media corporations but the very fact of the arbitrary power that they wield, however it is exercised. A frequent observation made by critics is that the present beneficiaries of this bias may in future see it directed against them.

Under a US statute oddly titled the Communications Decency Act the social media corporations are supposed to be ‘neutral platforms’ for all viewpoints, and not be content publishers exercising editorial discretion over what appears. This is something they possibly should worry about – Senator Ted Cruz quizzed Mark Zuckerberg about this recently when he gave evidence to a Senate committee.