Is incitement to insurrection and talk of sedition the same as "free speech"?

[Caliman73]

6. Two different issues.

On your point, yes, there are limits to free speech. That is established. The challenge is to determine when the line has been crossed. John Adams, when he pushed the Alien and Sedition Acts, was criticized sharply by many who thought he was becoming authoritarian. There has been debate about it ever since.

The FBI didn't want Billie Holliday singing "Strange Fruit" and agitating for Civil Rights, so they went after her on other grounds. That is the government stifling Free Speech, though not in a direct attack on her song. Lenny Bruce and Larry Flint were also targets of government for violating decency standards. Those are Free Speech situations. I would argue that Trump, Brooks, et al were inciting and seditious, but that needs to be determined in a court of law.

The Facebook and Twitter issue is separate. The First Amendment applies to what government can do regarding speech. Facebook and Twitter are not part of government. They are private platforms that have their own rules and terms of service. They don't need any kind of good argument to kick people off their platform. They just need to follow their own policies.