The Weak Freedom Of Speech Excuse

I have never really understood the freedom of speech thing or the demands to defend to the death the right for someone to say it because to me, if you are about to say something ridiculous, insulting or just plain ignorant i would prefer it that you kept your big fat gobs shut and said nothing at all.
Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that: 'Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers' which sounds good until it butts up against today's Social Media where any Tom, Dick or Sally can post whatever they want but can face criminal charges if it spills into Hate Speech which is defined as advocating, inciting, promoting or justifying hatred, violence and discrimination against a person or group of persons.
The Universal Right to freedom of opinion and expression without interference does have some limitations though and the law in the UK is if while expressing your opinion you libel, slander, incite a revolution, divulge classified information or violate copyright then you can expect to be stood in front of a man in a dusty white wig confirming your name.
With the evolution of the digital age, application of freedom of speech becomes more controversial and some social media platforms eliminate what it perceives as hate speech including Blogger who have removed commenters from this blog who have broken their hate speech rules but in a World where a lot of people now get their news from Social Media it is especially worrying as Meta announce plans to scrap fact-checking on their platforms to ensure 'free speech'.
Elon Musk's X platform has already done away with fact checking, also in the name of free speech and is now such a cess pool of misinformation that many brands and users have been fleeing the service with users down by 25% since he took over and the platform once valued at $44 billion in 2022 now valued at just $9.4 billion.
With Social media then becoming a leading source of misinformation, it has become an increasingly unreliable source and in the very near future (if not already) nobody will be able to believe a word of what they see on social media although, and here is the concern, many still will and take up the opportunity to use their 'free speech' against all vulnerable groups such as minorities, gender rights advocates, immigrants and LGBTQ+ communities, who are already the prime targets of hate speech.   
I'm not going to make suggestions of where you should get your news from, that is up to you, but at least in the age of Trump, Musk and various other dishonest actors who bring and lies and deceit, be aware that reputable news site and outlets have strict editorial guidelines for fact-checking and if it is not on any of them think could this person really have found something all the world's top journalists, scientists, doctors and experts missed.