More legal risk is introduced to cyberspace as online abuse is now being treated more seriously in the UK.
The rules officially put online abuse on the same level as offline hate crimes – defined as an action motivated by hostility or prejudice – like shouting abuse at someone face-to-face.
While I'm not racist, sexist, or any kind of hater, I do think it's going to be a lot more risky to be a UK citizen who posts under their real identity on social media. The question of whether free speech matters is not likely in my opinion to be decided by legal mechanisms. Free speech will be defended by and decided by technical mechanisms most likely. This means if there is a way for people to figure out how to post pseudo-anonymously or anonymously then free speech will exist until there is a way to prevent people from having any anonymity or pseudo-anonymity.
Supporters of free speech will have to support anonymity. Supporters of enforcement of criminalized hate speech ultimately will have to turn against any form of anonymity.