Facebook has apologized for censoring a anti-Obama Facebook post. It’s good that they apologized, as far as it goes, but that’s not far. Without explaining how it happened, their apology rings hollow. In particular, I’d like to hear what role the Obama campaign had in the censorship; they have a history of calling for their opponents to be censored.
More generally, however, this incident (and others like it) show the weakness of proprietary social networks for free speech. When you own the medium (say, on your own blog) you can say what you want. When someone else owns it, they can shut you down. Even if they have a policy of allowing free speech, they can renege on that policy at the very moment you’re most interested in speaking, such as just before an election.
Internet Scofflaw 