Have a look back to P. 3 and the good old days of October '20, ref. "Optics".

   The USA still likes to think it's the Home of the Free, the beacon of freedom for the rest of the world, champion of free speech.   Imagine "the optics" of ebay being the first major on-line market place in the free world to shut down its community discussion boards, especially in another free-enterprise democracy.  

   That's not going to happen.  This is the alternative

   Whatever the USA's self-image might be or how correct it is, the tech. giants don't like free anything.   They like to control and charge fees.   Ebay.uk has now followed the .com and PP board models  --  huge numbers of short threads (most with zero or a couple of replies).  They look busy, but the one thing you won't find among the  same regularly recurring questions on every page, is a real discussion about anything.

   A community that can talk as much as it likes, but can only say "Yes sir" (and don't forget to tug that forelock).