Recent decisions by social media companies to ban or suspend former President Donald Trump and others from their platforms are legally protected. The First Amendment restrains government, not private parties, from censoring speech.

Still, these actions should give us pause. Just because companies can censor speakers, that does not mean they should do so. The history of suppressing supposedly “dangerous” speech is rife with abuses and unforeseen side effects. The first point to note is that censorship undermines the very goals it is instituted to achieve. Those censored often come to see themselves as persecuted, hardening their convictions and increasing their fervor. In such a state, they can fall prey to leaders with extreme, dangerous ideologies. They can retreat into circles of conspiracies, feeding off of fear and anger in place of the public commons cooling influence. Open debate, where one can engage with dissent, or at least know what others are saying, is preferable to the secret malcontent fostered by censorship.