> Indeed, there's no need to frame this as a moral question, and it's arguably foolish to do so. It is and should be only a question of policy, politics, and constitutional law.
Morality drives the shaping of all three of those things, so framing it as a question of morality is unavoidable if one wants to do something other than the status quo (which is "A private service provider may choose to do business with or refrain from doing business with anyone for any reason that hasn't already been carved out by previous civil rights legislation"). I believe you immediately demonstrated this fact by stating as "policy" something that is a moral stance ("little people" deserve some minimal protections from "big people"). And we may do well to remember that the KKK is also "little people", as are neo-Nazis (and society has a vested interest in keeping both groups "little people").
All people should be treated equally as people in the eyes of the law, i.e. with empathy for their humanity. But when you divide groups into "little" and "big" by political belief, sometimes you do, in fact, find situations where the majority should suppress the minority (because the minority's belief is anti-human, and political beliefs are malleable).
Which is going to need to be acceptable, because the alternative is much worse. The backstop is to keep checks on those who hold power.
And if no such checks can be kept, then whether we consider deplatforming acceptable is irrelevant, because the powerful will do whatever they want regardless.
Morality drives the shaping of all three of those things, so framing it as a question of morality is unavoidable if one wants to do something other than the status quo (which is "A private service provider may choose to do business with or refrain from doing business with anyone for any reason that hasn't already been carved out by previous civil rights legislation"). I believe you immediately demonstrated this fact by stating as "policy" something that is a moral stance ("little people" deserve some minimal protections from "big people"). And we may do well to remember that the KKK is also "little people", as are neo-Nazis (and society has a vested interest in keeping both groups "little people").
All people should be treated equally as people in the eyes of the law, i.e. with empathy for their humanity. But when you divide groups into "little" and "big" by political belief, sometimes you do, in fact, find situations where the majority should suppress the minority (because the minority's belief is anti-human, and political beliefs are malleable).