randym77 posted at 4:25PM Mon, 07 January 2019 - #4342518

Basically, it comes down to money. Tumblr was hemorrhaging money.

And now they're hemorrhaging users, as many have left the platform as a matter of principle even when they have not been directly affected. So what has Tumblr really accomplished beyond killing their site. Same with Patreon and their selective application of their own tos, which is now costing them hundreds of thousands of patrons.

And really, when these social media platforms receive hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government for operating and "research" funds, they can no longer legitimately be considered a private entity. Definitely not the same as a truly private entity that operates solely on the revenue it generates on its own. And yet, those truly private businesses are subject to more laws and regulations regarding who they're allowed to deny their services to than these so-called privately owned social media platforms are.