The likely result for free speech would be people using some concentrator other than steemit.com to view the blockchain data so they don't have content hidden just because some disliked what is being stated. The power of steem is the blockchain and that it can't be censored. The steemit.com concentrator though in honoring down votes very much can censor. The people just have to be aware of other ways of viewing the blockchain. That is very unuser friendly and something most people would not do, or not know how to do, so for all intents and purposes it might as well be considered censorship.