Freedom of speech gives an individual the full power and rights to be able to express their opinions without any form of censorship, or any form of restraint, or even any form of legal penalty too..
The Freedom of speech is known to be the common principle which makes it possible for us as an individual or even a community to be able to air our opinions and air all our ideas without having the fear of the retaliation, or having fear of censorship, or having the fear of the legal sanction.
The freedom of speech is truly recognised in the human rights law by the United Nations and we have so many countries that upholds such laws and enables the protection of free speech in its countries..
So in the legal sense , a person can have freedom of speech via any medium they use which includes the internet.
The freedom of speech is always a controversial and delicate issue in the society most especially on the media and the topic will continue to be controversial for as long as we humans exist..
Freedom of speech is not a bad concept but we have bad people who take advantage of it and use it to perpetrate some kind of hidden agendas which might be hurtful to others and the general society.
Because you as an individual are entitled to the access to freedom of speech do not mean you should create ideas or opinions that will jeopardise the peace and sanity of the society..
You should always maintain decorum in whatever you want to do , you can pass your message to others without hurting their ego or creating public disturbance , you can exercise your freedom of speech without creating a disunited society.
One of the common places that people now abuse the freedom of speech is the internet.
Many cyber-bullies now hide under "freedom of speech" to carry out various kind of bullying, many trolls now do anything they want because they feel via the Internet they can say anything they want even if it is something that will hurt everyone in the world they do not care about that..
Every good thing will always have people who abuse it , freedom of speech is a very wonderful thing , it is a wonderful idea but some people are just fond of abusing the whole process , and such people make utterances that defeats the true purpose of the freedom of speech itself..
Now you cannot even defend the freedom of speech anymore because some speeches are better left unsaid , infact some speeches are a menace to the society and you would just wish some of these people can just stop having the rights to the freedom of speech..
Yesterday I was reading a random post on the internet and I saw one young man trying to defend rape, he kept trying to find a way to always blame the victims for the rape and not the perpetrator, when he was cautioned about making such statements , he kept replying that he has the right to air his opinion, yeah he has the right to air his opinion but should such opinion be aired ?should such opinion be even listened to ? Should such opinion be even made at all?? Should such person have rights to the freedom of speech which will create an insane society that encourages rape?
I still support freedom of speech because it has its good advantages though recently its disadvantages are becoming a more serious problem in the society most especially on the internet and I think we all need to come together to do something about it or else freedom of speech itself will become our problem..