The board was supposed to serve as a tool for the government to “work with” privately-owned social media platforms – specifically Twitter – by co-opting them as “stakeholders” in efforts to suppress debate about “conspiracy theories” – such as information around Covid, vaccines, and election integrity.

The Democrats’ collapse on speech is especially tragic because Republicans have almost always been terrible on this issue and weirdly still are now, even when so many of their voters are primary targets of “content moderation” schemes, and “Domestic Terrorism” legislation clearly aimed at its base.