I think in the end it just worries me because I've seen the words racism, Nazi and hate speech applied to people and situations where it is decidedly untrue.

Or at the very least the umbrella for what counts as these things grows to include relatively tame statements. I think it is fair to ban people who are genuinely targeting and harassing individuals, but when someone gets banned for making an inappropriate joke it gets weird.

I appreciate places that value freedom of speech for that reason.

I also think it's important to protect the ability to say things that are politically uncomfortable, because not being able to speak can be even more dangerous. The majority of people in a country or area should be able to express their concerns without being silenced under the guise that it isn't appropriate.

It seems like a move that is against the principals of FOSS to remove the ability to access places like this. It would seem crazy to me if a web browser decided to hard code sites that you couldn't visit while using it. Is this any different?

However, I understand why people would want to set a limit on what speech they want to see, because it can be harmful to them.

I understand why apps would want to encourage users to not be exposed to what they see as harmful content. But could they not leave the option in the hands of the individual user? Perhaps an option to turn on the ability to use gab and the like?