I think free speech is crucial, especially when it's political speech. One important factor though is, no matter how "free" you are to say a particular thing, you are held to account in civil law. If you call someone a pedophile when they are not, they can sue you for slander.
What I find interesting (in my country) is that a politician in parliament has the "parliamentary privilege" to say things that would get them sued if they said them in public. The PLACE where speech occurs can affect its legality and consequences.Calling a cop a "pig" will get more of a response if it's done at a protest march.
If you stand on a street corner with a megaphone and say something slanderous, you have a reasonable chance of getting away with it. But if you write the same thing on a website called www.streetcorner.org, people may attempt to sue not only you, but also the hosting ISP.
Thankfully such cases haven't all been very successful but we have to be vigilant if we want the same social and legal standards to apply to a virtual forum as apply to a real life forum. Just like the voting public should severely punish politicians who try to abuse their parliamentary privilege.
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