Is free speech a good thing? short answer is YES and we should defend our right to speak freely in a peaceful respectful way. It is a fundamental part of a democracy which sadly currently seems to be in danger of political restrictions in some democratic countries
However we must remember that free speech by any person is based on many factors including their personal circumstances, degree of knowledge of the subject, influence of politics and the information provided by media which can be influenced by external players such as politicians and other influential parties.
Speaking freely does not mean you are correct in your views and therefore free speech is only of value if you have debate and are prepared to alter your position as you broaden your understanding of the subject.
Debate is where we often have problems on the internet and especially social media. I see it like road rage in cars, you often see people shouting and swearing from inside the safety of their car whereas they would not say anything if face to face to someone and indeed on the internet people can be very abusive from the safety of their device which makes debate quite toxic.
I am not particularly religious but I do have principles equivalent if you like to the 10 commandments and one of those is that I will always give others the same respect that I would expect them to give to me and I believe that internet based debate will always fail if people do not follow a similar principle.
The political parties and politicians use social media and manipulate it to support their own agendas and Internet companies are only interested in 'hits' and the more toxic the debate then the more 'hits' this seems to generate so there is little hope of true free speech actually achieving anything via the internet.
So whereas the internet is great for researching information and observing current events etc. I do not think it is a place for debate unless you can do so with respect