There are many lessons to learn here. Dont be thin skinned online. Evil is real, etc. Dwtermine your value by your own self estimation, not an anonymous vote. (extremely important lesson in a social media world) Many many lessons.
We have laws, but that mere fact is not an excuse to make any and every law so it is not a very strong point. Besides, free speech is law, and it is constantly enforced. It is law. And it was a law very intentionally created so that we can have a functioning society, explicitly made from the perspective of someone who was subjected to restrected speech from another government. Free speech is a rare liberty that only the most prosperous nations enjoy, and had to be payed for with millions of bodies and blood. I highly recommend talking to an older person who fled the soviet union.
Side point, I do not believe in hate crime as distinguished from crime. Crime is crime. If I murder someone is it twice as immoral if they are black? There should be no distinction. The mere existence of a legal distinction violates my good sense.