This apparent contradiction is just a moderately clever way of using an ambiguity in the word.
If "deplatforming" is taken to mean "depriving people of an easy means to find and communicate to an audience" it can be an effective technique depending on context, alternative communication channels, etc.
If "deplatforming" is taken to mean "a novel social ill based on depriving people of their right to communicate" then yeah it's a myth.
That's basically the same thing. The purpose of doing the former is the latter, since everyone does it.
Free speech is like encryption at this point. Sure, it's not technically illegal, but if you actually try to do something for the public to use then the system will find some way to make it impossible and shut you down.
No the second embeds two important differences from the first: that this is new (it's as old as writing at least) and that it's bad (a value judgement you can fall on either side of).
Well the first two at least. I'm describing my beliefs. They are also shared by a lot of people; y'all wouldn't have to yell about free speech so much if this view was unpopular.
I admit that I also enjoy riling up first amendment fundamentalists but it isn't my main goal and these are my sincerely held beliefs so I don't think really qualifies as trolling.
Fair enough, I already knew all of that, I just wanted to make sure you're not trolling me by saying things you don't actually believe.
Putting the potential straw man aside, wouldn't you say that your definition of a 'myth', whatever it might be, is ambiguous to the point where you can accuse anyone of spreading myths and disinformation, even if they're factually correct? For example, let's get everyone offended and say that someone could say that George Floyd getting killed by police is a myth, because he was killed for resisting and being a criminal, and it wasn't a bad thing at all. People cast a moral judgement on this event, so in a way it is a myth, is it not? Or is it when it's something that contradicts your own moral judgement?
If "deplatforming" is taken to mean "depriving people of an easy means to find and communicate to an audience" it can be an effective technique depending on context, alternative communication channels, etc.
If "deplatforming" is taken to mean "a novel social ill based on depriving people of their right to communicate" then yeah it's a myth.