[EL] Twitter deplatforming a candidate = an in-kind corporate contribution to rivals?

[Stephanie Singer]

Two questions from Eugene Volokh, in two different emails:
>   So as a result, if Twitter deletes A’s account but keeps B’s, that really is a thing of great value to B.  Should that be part of the analysis?  Or should we say that what Twitter gives B is still the same service that Twitter gives all its other users (except A and a few others), at the same rate, and therefore it shouldn’t count as a contribution?
>  
> 
Does it matter whether the deletion of the account follows from a violation of Twitter’s policies to which both A and B are subject?


>                 I agree that Twitter’s “pushing” its preferred stories is “carrying ... commentary ... by [a] Web site” acting as a “periodical publication.”
>  
>                 But the question is whether this means that Twitter’s hosting others’ material on its own computers visible only to those people who got to see that page – acting as platform rather than pusher -- is also covered; and I’m not sure that’s indeed covered by “Any cost incurred in covering or carrying a news story, commentary, or editorial by any broadcasting station (including a cable television operator, programmer or producer), Web site, newspaper, magazine, or other periodical publication, including any Internet or electronic publication, is not a contribution unless the facility is owned or controlled by any political party, political committee, or candidate, in which case.”

The algorithm determining which stories get pushed to whom uses data available to Twitter about who clicks on what and when. That data is proprietary and is likely Twitter’s greatest asset. So could one argue that all Twitter’s costs associated with that data (which might well be Twitter’s entire budget) are part of the cost of pushing?

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