When people say “free speech” I tend to hear “call of duty lobby”. In the early days of reddit, my experience is that it was mostly just tech people talking about PC builds and sharing Top Gear clips (how I discovered Top Gear). And of course, it was very easy to find abuse groups, fatpeoplehate, watchpeopledie, 4chan, etc.
I don’t recall this mystical free speech bastion, because I don’t think I see the concept the same as you. Sure, in the early days of the internet it was easier to be an anonymous abuser, but I have always avoided those communities… and the reason they disappear is… they’re not popular places. They just collect butt heads until the butt heads think, " Yeah, everyone thinks like me! I’m a free thinker!" (In the limited scope of the butt head group)
But I mean, the majority keeps eradicating those spaces. At some point if your population continues to be sprayed with bugspray, maybe consider if you are a bug.