Permanent bans are the most aggressive form of censorship. This form of censorship forever prohibits social media users from posting, sharing or interacting with content in any way. But sometimes, social media companies will quickly reverse their "permanent bans" after issuing them. Several social media platforms applied permanent bans to former President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Riot, after legacy news outlets wrongly linked the former president to the turbulent events of that day.

Account locks happen when a social media platform temporarily bars a user from getting into or sharing content from his or her account. One example of this is when Twitter locked The Babylon Bee's verified account in March for tweeting about "transgender" U.S. Assistant Health Secretary "Rachel" Levine.

One of the powerful tools deployed by Big Tech to squelch free speech is the relatively new idea of fact-checkers. In theory, these organizations target misstatements of fact. In practice, fact-checkers have become narrative police — targeting conservative content far more than liberal. Even when the facts are correct, fact-checkers do their best to undermine content they simply don’t like. 

Big Tech companies regularly delete content they deem to be supposed "hate speech," "violent content" or otherwise vaguely described violations of social media companies' content policies. This form of censorship is widespread and commonplace, occurring frequently across all major platforms.

Financial censorship takes several different forms. Credit card companies, payment processors and consumer banks have blacklisted conservatives in several different ways, including by refusing to process payments to certain political action committees and candidates, withholding donations from certain groups, permanently banning certain individuals and canceling certain fundraisers.