Or from the other perspective: Meta and Google have had their finger on the scale for more than a decade (along with old twitter).

In twitters case, you had regime officials directing censorship illegally through open emails and meetings.

It's no surprise that the needle moves right when you dial back the suppression of free expression even a little bit (X still censors plenty)

How is it illegal? It is their platform to do what they want with it. You can disagree and not use it, but it is theirs to do with as they see fit. If this was a government run operation paid for with tax dollars, then it would be an issue.