The platforms have created what are effectively utilities, and for two decades have used them to harvest prodigious quantities of data and wealth, helped by the legal protection of section 230 of the US Communications Decency Act, which exempts platforms from liability for what they host, on the basis that they are not publishers. This “digital public square” defence has always been flimsy. Public squares have to be maintained and policed. The platforms would naturally like to be allowed to go on extracting extraordinary profits with scant regulation, but governments are realising that cannot be allowed.
