The social media billionaires want us to believe their putrid platforms are the “new town squares.” That their half-baked social videos and for-you feeds have replaced the agora. And that, somehow, we’re all better for it.

It’s the most overused, meaningless claim on the Internet.

A litany of exploiters and extractors have trotted out that same phrase to excuse the vagaries of their platforms and give themselves a free pass to irresponsibility, hostility, and self-enrichment.

But their apps — virtual panopticons — have more in common with prison yards and shopping malls than public forums.