This has caused an upheaval in societal mores as regards free speech. Enough is enough! There needs to be limits. Communities started imposing limits to free speech. For example, UC Berkeley, renowned for giving birth to the Free Speech Movement, made news for banning harmful speech, such as that by Ann Coulter. This is a natural evolution of societal mores. This particular evolution was a reaction to the excesses and abuses seen in social media. This type of censorship, as opposed to absolute free speech, will be the new normal. We live in a new world. Malicious individuals and groups now have the power to reach hundreds of millions instantly, at no cost to themselves. The old rules no longer apply.
Some say if you disagree with someone else's speech you should not just ban them, you should defeat them by arguing against their ideas. But when state-sponsored actors spread fake news and divisive ads at a massive scale on social media you can’t simply defeat them by arguing against their ideas. How do you counter it? By buying opposing ads on Facebook? Even if you have pockets as deep as Putin’s, what a waste of money that would be! This is a new world and the old methods are no longer applicable. Communities and social media companies will need to engage in some censorship.