That's a good point--that many private corporations do have more power than many sovereign nations (and I'd include social media in that). And of course Rushdie does know. better than most of us what censorship is.

But it seems useful to distinguish between government and private repression because governments can do so much more serious harms: executing you, throwing you in jail, suppressing your books, and so on.

It did occur to me while writing this that perhaps our vocabulary needs expanding or updating to reflect new realities, especially in social media. I think, for example, that the term "shadow banning" is useful, but it doesn't cover all the ways companies can silence you. Thanks so much for your perceptive comments.