No, alt-rightists, "free speech" does not include harassing people

I see a lot of complaints among those on the alt right who complain about sites banning them for exercising their free speech. There was a controversy on Reddit a few months back in which the site shut down many of the subs these guys frequented, many of which were out right hate subs, some of which doxxed and harassed people. Long story short, these guys got their subs shut down, they cried about their free speech rights, and then they moved to a Reddit clone named Voat.

Now Milo Yiannopoulos, a hero of the alt right movement, got banned from Twitter for harassing and encouraging the harassment of an actress of the new Ghostbusters movie. And once again, the alt right is freaking out and crying about free speech.

Now, the common argument against their claims is that private companies have a right to censor whatever content they want. I don't necessarily agree fully with this, because I believe if corporations can become the gatekeepers to deciding what speech is acceptable, that our right to free speech only exists on a piece of paper. I don't like the idea of people being fired over their political beliefs, or ISPs favoring certain views over others (a huge reason why net neutrality is so important), or even popular social media sites censoring views they don't agree with. However, I do think there needs to be some reasonable limits to free speech. You can't obviously say ANYTHING and expect there to be no consequences. Especially when it comes to harassing people. I mean there's a huge difference between expressing your own views, and being a jerk. Milo was being a jerk. The subreddits on Reddit that were banned were largely run by jerks. Jerks advocate for open, unbridled hate against others, and even encourage the harassment of others. They're not nice people. They're not banned for innocently expressing their views. They're banned for creating a hostile environment for other users of the same media platforms, or even in real life. There's a big difference there.

I would not consider myself pro censorship, but honestly, Milo and others who act like him have it coming to them. You do not exist in isolation. You're not simply expressing your views innocently in a vacuum in a way that does not effect others. If you're harassing people or making a hostile environment for other people in some significant way, you probably deserve to be banned from these social media platforms. Period.