It means that your rights don't mean anything. It means that your rights are dependent upon decisions made by unelected people who are not accountable to you or to anybody else for that matter. You can't tell where the line is. When you go online or out in the streets and know that you might be punished for something bad that you say, and when you don't know where the line is between hateful and offensive, then that means your speech is chilled. If you live in a country where you have to think twice before you speak because you're concerned about getting into legal trouble, then you know you probably don't live in a free country.
On December 4th, 2024. See this statement in context.