Freedom of speech is only about whether what you say can be used against you for government persecution (other than admitting to a crime to an officer of the la

Freedom of speech is only about whether what you say can be used against you for government persecution (other than admitting to a crime to an officer of the law). Therefore, I don't think we can say that posts and replies on the websites hosted by private companies can be considered protected speech. That said, treating upvotes and downvotes in the same way as the text in a post or reply is a pretty bad idea IMHO.