Nigeria, March 22 -- There is much talk in this age of heaving tech behemoths about the digital town square, where views can be aired with confidence, impunity and, at stages, disconcerting stupidity. Tech moguls such as Elon Musk are the loudest proponents of the view, claiming that "it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital square".

The guardians of this square are, however, a fickle lot, managing the distribution of licenses (they can cancel them at any point, just as quickly as they can reinstate them - take Donald Trump as an example). They can also overtly make attempts to blacklist and blacken material that exposes their various practices.

An example of the latter can be found in the response to Carel...