You can either have freedom of expression or safety online. You can't have both. And the second might be an impossible goal regardless.
Freedom of expression has never really meant you're completely free to say and anything (at least no in a civilized world). There are always going to be gray areas, but equally there are areas where expression should obviously be protected.
An example would be, if Facebook decided to eradicate all homosexual content. Clearly the EU stepping in and saying you can't discriminate against gay speech is protecting the gay communities freedom of expression.
Equally the EU stepping in and saying the Facebook isn't doing enough to protect victims of revenge porn is providing safety online. And is a reasonable balance between the rights of free expression from the poster vs the victim.
Equally the EU isn't applying the same regulation to every company, the most significant ones only apply to companies with 10% market share. It would be quite plausible for gay friendly social networks to spring up to fill that gap, and I would entirely expect it to happen. Apps like Grindr basically proves it would happen.
With freedom comes responsibility and so forth. One persons freedom should not remove another's - which is what the platforms are doing.
The EU are ready to act https://twitter.com/NetopiaEU/status/1338879633392070656