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but you won't get censored for criticising the Government... I guess unless you are an American criticizing Israel

Or if you are a British journalist speaking out against genocide, in which case you get arrested on terrorism charges

Or if you are in Germany and hold a conference discussing said genocide, in which case the police raids you and shuts you down

Or if you are a European journalist documenting an inconvenient truth from the "wrong side", in which case you get your bank account seized and face criminal charges and are banned from entering the EU

Or if you are in the Baltics celebrating Europe's victory over the Nazis and singing songs the government doesn't like, in which case you get arrested, fined and possibly jailed

Freedom of speech in the West amounts to you being free to shout into the void, and only so long as it doesn't change anything or threaten the ruling establishment and its political agenda. As long as your speech is entirely ineffectual and can be ignored by those in power then you can scream as loud as you want. As soon as your speech is a real threat to the agenda of the ruling class you are quickly shut down and made an example of with extreme prejudice.

You are functionally not allowed to challenge the official government position in the West either. In European countries the government outright bans candidates from standing in elections if they are anti-EU or anti-NATO, and you are threatened with fines or even jail time for disagreeing with the official narrative on Ukraine conflict. On certain issues, namely those that actually matter, there is only one accepted position, and deviation results in you being branded a terrorist, traitor, Hamas sympathizer, Russian agent, etc.

The West is just as if not more authoritarian than China. China is just more honest about their censorship.