the whole free speech thing is an interesting thing. in the US it is in the constitution without any exception, yet people get in trouble all the time for their speech from the governments. in the EU it is in their law with exception and people get in trouble as well. in china it is in their constitution with exception and they get in trouble all the time. in about 1/3 of the US depictions can be illegal, in the EU the 'federal' law prohibits it but tends to not be enforced 'locally' resulting in roughly the same ratio as the US for illegal depictions. in the US things that have social outcry tend to be taken care of by private corporations as the law tends to have limits, though the coordination and overlooking of certain legal issues during which tends to show governmental approval if nothing else for the private actions. in the EU the law steps in and deals with unpopular things. in China the government deals with unpopular things, and like the EU tends to ignore things with no public outcry. the end result is that in all 3 things tend to be the same, though there is some obfuscation in the US. in all 3 there are highly autonomous regional authorities that have a government over them to create a sort of limited unity. the argument that 'its a private platform' in the US tends to not really matter, as they act just like government and like the other two act similarly. private companies that try and act on their own tend to fail due to behind the scenes meddling (credit card companies and banks refusing to do business, regulatory agencies conducting investigations, permit processes dragging on, etc.). in the end we tend to get angry at the website doing the things that keep it from having the ire of whatever boot they live under from crushing them, when they are just doing what they can to provide as much freedom as they can. the more eyes a website gets the more people that can get offended, and if enough get offended you have social outcry, and whether you live in the US, the EU, or China that will get the site shut down. anything that gets big gets bland as a way of surviving, so if you want to preserve your way of life you need to stay small but have enough power to keep the majority away (or be hidden from the world at large).
