> It has nothing to do with the legal definition of free speech.

I am not talking about the Constitution. I’m talking about a cultural value. Not the same thing.

These people, groups, organizations are not having their ability to speak stifled. They're having their choice of location stifled. There are plenty of people willing to host views that others might find unpleasant. From Gab, to Voat, to nearlyfreespeech.net, self-hosting and the like.

Now if your argument is (as often, theirs is) that those platforms are fringe, not nearly-as-popular, I would theorize that that is because a larger majority of people have heard some of these things and have zero interest in hearing more.

But they can still say it.

And at that point, I ask, what is the cultural value of requiring people to hear things they've decided they do not wish to?

I don’t have a problem with people deciding they don’t want to hear certain speech. I have a problem with someone else making that decision for me, unbeknownst to me, and on nuanced issues like contemporary politics (not the fairly straightforward stuff that ends up on Gab.)

Even then, I’d still prefer a totally open system that lets me decide what I want to see/not see, because it avoids any potential censorship.

People and systems are deciding what you see and do not see every day. From moderators on HN to the algorithms on every Facebook and Google product. When you search on Google and get a trillion results, you are letting Google choose for you by ranking pages. I am extremely thankful for those services as I would be sad if I had to wade through a trillion results and decide what to see/not see myself. I expect these companies and people to filter out BS I do not want.

None of that prevents me from hosting my own website, or going to a public space, and saying whatever I want.

You can't say that and use the quote in the original comment. The quote references a right, which comes from laws and the Constitution, yet you mention a cultural value instead. Which are you talking about here, the right of free speech, or the cultural value of free speech?

Rights don't come from laws, we are endowed with them by our creator.