Right, the ability to port your social graph with you is the benefit here.

Yep. Wisconsinite here (and a teacher as well). I have mixed feelings on this. I’d be fuming if a Republican governor pulled something like this and I generally think it’s a power governors shouldn’t have. However, when held against the context of the way GOP has operated within the letter of the law to entrench themselves within Wisconsin politics, I’m all for Democrats using tactics like this. GOP will use them and it’s unfair for everyone to expect Dems to take the high road at the expense of our policy priorities.

In my perfect world I’d get rid of both this power and the GOP gerrymander in Wisconsin

I find the “digital commons” and the “online town square” metaphors to be poor ones when thinking about moderation on social networks. It’s shoehorning analog concepts onto digital information transmission systems. The two are not the same. Harassment and misinformation spread happen very differently digitally than they do in the analog world. “Digital commons” metaphors are prominent amongst “free speech” hardliners like Dorsey and Musk who simply don’t want to go through the hassle of developing, funding, and creating policy for online speech moderation. Anyone who uses phrases like digital commons loses a fair amount credibility in my eyes.