The term "free speech" is used today, particularly in the mostly "right-wing" alternative media, as if its definition is universally understood.
However, the term "free speech" is anything but understood the same way by everyone who uses it.
The first thing to understand about "free speech" is that in its absolute form, it doesn't exist.
Absolute and total "free speech" is not allowed by any country of the world today, and every country in the world today has laws that regulate and prohibit total "free speech."
In the U.S., for example, as well as in most countries around the world, one does not have "free speech" to publish what is considered "pornography", or various types of sex crimes. There is no "free speech", for example, to publish a video of a pedophile raping a baby or young child.
Imagine a world where there was unregulated, total "free speech" such as this.
Likewise, lying in public or on a publicly accessible Internet platform where someone lies about another person, or even just gives false information, that results in that person suffering harm, is also illegal according to the laws of slander and libel speech, and the victim can sue the person practicing their "free speech" that caused them harm.
When it was announced this past weekend that the tech billionaire Pavel Durov, the Telegram founder and CEO, was arrested in France, almost everyone in the alternative media, mainly on the Right, was quick to come to his defense and claim that this was an attack on "free speech".
This was seen as a political move by France to squelch the speech of all those who had been kicked off social media platforms such as YouTube and found refuge on Telegram.
But as we look at the allegations against Pavel Durov, CEO of Telegram, while it is true that one of his "crimes" mentioned is not restricting the "dangerous" speech of "far-right" extremists, that is hardly the only charge being made against him.
Here is a report from cybernews.com: "As the founder of Telegram, Durov is accused of not cooperating with law enforcement regarding crimes such as child sexual abuse, drug trafficking, and fraud. The investigation reportedly also related to insufficient moderation, with Durov allegedly failing to take steps to limit criminal uses of Telegram."
I, for one, am highly skeptical about the motives and actions of Big Tech Billionaires.