At the New York Times, the editorial pages have become an unlikely focus for regular reader outrage. Free from the type of laws which patrol speech elsewhere, America has, in the past, relied on the strong social norms and the first amendment to keep order in the public sphere. Now, both journalism organisations and platform companies are feeling the pressure to exercise the right not to publish or amplify certain types of content. Social media and platform companies in particular say they are experiencing much more pressure to remove, restrict and take down certain types of content than to uphold free speech. The recent furore over the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, whose Infowars channels propagated ridiculous theories but also caused harassment and harm, demonstrated that even the largest companies who host the public sphere are not immune to public pressure or rational editorial decision-making. How decisions are made about what reaches the public and what is suppressed is becoming a critical part of a wider political struggle between what many see as an over-amplified far right and what the right would describe as a liberal elite. The report's identification of new types of network that operate outside the norms of mainstream media is undeniably true. Read more