I see this take all the time either with *-ist and now with *-phobia and if you sincerely believe it you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the kind of content that's being discussed.

It's the "anything can be a slur is you say it with enough hate" thing. You're just giving a name to the group targeted by it. The content isn't the thing that matters, it's the dehumanization and harassment.

I would agree if it were applied equally across the board. I see no clear reason why "transgender rights, immigration or homosexuality" should specifically be spared from moderation, while other speech remains subject to censorship.

In your honest opinion, is using of the term “trannies” a strong marker for what many may call “transphobia?”

I mean you can be a local bar that hosts KKK rallies and sure that’s a legal thing to do (in USA), but you will still end up being known for that, probably by many names that don’t just include “phobia”. And of course, the impact of bringing together a KKK rally inherently impacts your local community since you may begin to see things like lynchings in the news or in person.

In United States a private business is free to shut down any speech it likes on its infrastructure/premises*. If you look closely, you will find that most or all do it to some speech or other. The revealing part is specifically what speech gets shut down.

In other words, unless you believe Facebook is part of State or acts on behalf of the State, “you don’t get to shut down hate speech” is mereley your sentiment, not something Constitution requires from them.

If Mark Z actually called hate speech “protected speech”, it is something he is free to do, but Facebook is also completely free to suppress hate speech.

* https://www.nyclu.org/commentary/column-applying-constitutio...