Good article; I disagree with your premises.

First, hate speech is just a label. Sorry for all the wimps out there, but words are just that, if you feel like you are damaged by words, maybe the internet is NOT for you. This is NOT to be mixed together with calls for violence. That is against the law, and that is what Gab (as your example) was doing, so long as it is not calls for violence or advocating for criminal activity, then there's nothing to complain about and if people don't like it, there's a few options :

• mute the user
• scroll down
• offer a counter argument

The very fact that you are trying to frame your position into a justification for some forms of censorship is far more deplorable than coming across a person whose opinions you might disagree with or even find distasteful.

Now, specific to Gab; the platform WAS TARGETED BECAUSE it represents a viable alternative to the controlled platform of Twitter. They say "you don't like the censorship, build your own alternative" and now that one is built, it's a fight to shut them down.