I believe the big difference between you and I is that I don't see misinformation filtering as a bad thing because the internet is not centrally controlled. The market for web apps on the internet is pure and unregulated capitalism which is how it should stay.

No one is forcing you to use Google or YouTube. People use them because they are good tools and they, more often than not, deliver accurate information. In the event that Google falls under the influence of a hypothetical deep state, it would become apparent very quickly by using another search engine. You would get completely different results. Over time, the inaccuracy of the information would cause a sizable amount of people to swap over to other tools. That's what's great about capitalism. It gives you options. The internet is democracy.

Another hard pill for free speech absolutists to swallow is that most people are just incapable of "doing their own research" at a level that is required to understand complex topics. I direct your attention to this site.

https://www.wyliecomm.com/2021/08/whats-the-latest-u-s-literacy-rate/

About half of the US has a literacy rating that qualifies as below the reading capabilities of an eight grader. Only 12 percent of the country has a literacy rate that is proficient enough to identify sources as unreliable. The theory that people should be able to do their own research is great, but this actually just goes to prove my point. Doing your own research is impossible for the average person when there is so much misinformation out there.

The scariest thing for me is not information being centrally controlled. There's far too many tools that allow us to get the information we want. Information suppression would also have to come with large social changes that change the fabric of western society. The scariest thing for me is that foreign governments can use misinformation to control a population and cause chaos among its citizens. That's what's scariest to me.

Lmao, you think people are able to do their own research and come to sensible conclusions. We're human, not purely rational beings with unlimited time to research. We like passing along entertaining stories and have a billion internal biases we don't check unless we have the time. Almost nobody has the time. Who then will be able to reliably "do their own research"?

You need education (from real experts with credentials) and time to do actual research and come to an informed opinion.