Are social media's recent bannings a freedom of expression issue?

Indeed. They only come after (a) the attempt at violent overthrow does happen (though half-arsedly) and (b) having failed, the providers only now feel “safe” that they no longer have to fear a repeal of 230.

And yes, more than a freedom of expression thing it’s a markets thing. Heck, back in Ye Olde Days, seditionists and wingnuts had to just pass along mimeographed newsletters or self-publish their “books” and sell them in lower-end newsstands next to the porn. They were not entitled to be distributed by the major houses or sold at the major bookstores. Their letters to the Editor would just get tossed if they were incomprehensible or vile. That did not mean they were being deprived of their freedom, did it? The publishers and bookstores were not “common carriers” obligated to convey anything anyone wanted to sell through them.

Today we deal with a distorted market situation, where there is a perception that if you’re not on Amazon/Google/Twitter/Apple you might as well not exist… but that may be just a reflection of a culture of both content creator and consumer audience that doesn’t want to go, one of them through the effort and expense of of actually setting up their own server hosts and environments, and the others through that of looking up the sites the “hard” way. I commented elsewhere, why in the world would the runners of Parler want to be hosted at AMAZON of all places? They just went for whatever was easiest. Heck, their verifier application was a *&^%$# Free Trial!