I suspect that part of the reversion to censorship is a reaction to a shift in the information environment. We've moved from a situation in which more free spee

I suspect that part of the reversion to censorship is a reaction to a shift in the information environment. We've moved from a situation in which more free speech mostly meant pumping more signal into the public space to one where more free speech means pumping in more noise. The worst thing about this is how easily this mechanism can be leveraged against our inclination to madly pattern match, and, worse(?), how we pick out the signals we like more than the ones we don't. I'm not sure how to deal with this yet, but I am skeptical that total free speech is the best option right now. At least, we need to build new institutions and new media consumption habits before it becomes the best option. We need ways to deal with noise, be that individually or as communities. My inclination is to say that we should push political discussions down to the local level in order increase the signal/noise ratio while maintaining free speech.