On this:<p>> "If you go back to the Arab Spring and the Green Revolution there was generally a sense of triumphalism. Back then, the CEO of Twitter said that we are the free speech wing of the free speech party. That’s how Silicon Valley saw itself. Ten years later, you have the widespread view that Silicon Valley needs to restrict and regulate disinformation and prevent free speech on its platform."<p>The governmental alarm over the power of unregulated social media networks to influence political change really began with the Arab Spring. Basically, populist revolutions were seen by the US government as clearly good things in Libya, Iran, Syria - but as clearly bad things in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE. Egypt and Tunisia fell somewhere in the middle. This is just straight power-resource politics, it had nothing to do with 'promoting democratic reforms'.<p>For example, when Libyan tanks were rolling into Benghazi, NATO and the US began bombing Libya to 'defend democratic reforms' - but when Saudi tanks rolled into Bahrain to crush pro-democracy protests, the US and NATO looked the other way. A very good overview of what was happening behind the headlines is here:<p><a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2012/02/20/commentary/how-the-arab-spring-was-hijacked/" rel="nofollow">https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2012/02/20/commentary/h...</a>