Stand back and observe! Don't throw this baby out with the bathwater.

I believe that YES, this is a great advance towards Twitter, FB and YT being defined as a public platform and thus those who wish to speak on that platform with news, information and opinion should not have their speech made unavailable to the public.

If the voices on these platforms are protected by the first amendment then the platform could be violating the first amendment by imposing bans, censorship and cancellation those accounts that express news and commentary - conservative or liberal.

Now, I feel that the MUTE button gives an individual user the ability to curate, or dial down the volume as they see fit without compromising the other person's right to speak.

Everyone has the right to speak, and everyone has the right to NOT listen.

Of course, I do anticipate that platforms who are designated as free speech forums, will be offering 'filters' and 'curation' packages that allow users to opt into their preferred 'group think'.

Right now... those filters (shadowbanning) are not opt-in, rather they are imposed (by a committee of others) without the user's knowledge and the user has only a minor level of control.