civics: Censorship and the Taxpayer funded State
This is why, for example, the most powerful corporation the world had then seen — the East India Company — was summarily dissolved by the British parliament in 1874. It is also why the Bell System of telecommunications companies was broken up by US antitrust law and policy in the 1980s. Companies can be very powerful — but there is always something stronger on which they depend for legal recognition.
Large companies therefore place great reliance on being able to influence public policy and lawmaking. This explains what Meta did, for instance, with the appointment of the pro-European former UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg as vice-president of global affairs and communication. That was a good choice for a company seeking to constructively influence the formulation and implementation of EU policy.
As the surrender of Musk and X to the Brazilian courts shows, state power is likely to always ultimately win against the platforms if tested
