Contrary to the Internet crybabies, online speech in the US is really free, actually

[Commentary] In the past 12 months, popular Internet discourse has been severely afflicted with a malady we’ll call the PCs. There’s a lot of bellyaching, in short, over the perceived encroachment of “political correctness” and the persecution of “free speech.” First Gamergate griped that it was being silenced; then users cried censorship over Twitter’s more aggressive abuse policies; now Reddit, in a much-debated about-face, is zapping its most racist communities. But here’s a little reassurance/reality check for you: Regardless of the rules private companies pass, the US still has some of the strongest protections of Internet speech anywhere.

If you want to say something racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, misogynistic, anti-feminist, anti-corporate, cruel, subversive or incendiary -- this, my friends, is your country. Case in point: Voat, the nascent forum widely billed as a looser, freer, anything-goes alternative to Reddit, was founded by two students in Switzerland. This week, the company went legit and incorporated … in the US. “Why the US?” wrote co-founder Atif Colo in a post announcing the change. “Switzerland seemed like a great option in the beginning, but when it comes to freedom of speech, the main idea behind Voat, US law by far beats every other candidate country we’ve researched.” By “US law,” of course, Colo is referring both to the First Amendment -- which protects US citizens from government censorship of their speech -- and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which generally protects Voat Inc., even if/when its users turn the site to really shady things. (Notably, in the months since Voat surged to mainstream prominence, forums on child porn, “right-wing extremist content” and doxing have all cropped up on it.) Other countries -- even other Western democracies -- are not nearly as welcoming of these things.