Europe, despite its stricter free speech laws, still sees an explosion in hate. People need to get out of the (neo)liberal paradigm, almost assuming things are fine as long as people start listening to "facts and reason" and we don't get exposed to "bad stuff". I don't see how they can ever effectively challenge populism and nativism (by presenting a real, popular alternative) unless they deal with the fundamental drivers of these currents, like economic inequality and marginalisation.

Even the most repressive of regimes can't simply keep stability even given complete control of media. Look at the middle east, with islamists turning over autocrats. Things aren't as bad in the west, yet, but they won't get better if people see the rise of people like Trump and retreat to convenient stories of "social media awakening the bestial nature of man". It may be more convenient (especially for the ruling class) to restrict freedoms instead of restructuring society, but they will have to if they're really serious about "solving" these problems (I'm sure they are not.)