As a woman in journalism I’ve always wondered why the debate over free speech means people being able to say “I am going to rape and kill you.” We’ve been asked to endure that speech for the right to have a voice. So many free speech absolutists are fine with us taking the brunt.

It’s not just some psychic burden. Plenty of these threats have migrated to the real world. And if you go to the police with a social media post, it’s not exactly a four-alarm fire. Violent online speech can lead to real world violence.

I was once a free speech absolutist. The answer to violent speech was more speech. It’s been clear in the last four years that more speech, facts and truth, do not clean up the mess violent speech and disinformation leave behind.

I’m completely uncomfortable with government regulation, or policing political speech, but if Twitter and Facebook want to remove threats and plans for violent acts, that is clearly not the same thing to me.

Some on the left don’t want to talk about any challenge to the idea that all speech is free, and some on the right want to maintain the speech environment that led to an insurrection. It’s hard to have an honest conversation about speech, facts, violence and disinformation.

In the meantime, our society places the cost of free speech on people of color and women by not applying current laws to violent white supremacist and misogynistic speech. Once again, women and PoC pay the tolls to pay for the highway.