So using a country’s own legal system to protect the free expression rights of its citizens is imperialism?

Feels like you might be debasing the word a bit there.

As if Eastern imperialists are any better, if at all

They're not. They're infected by the same "everyone is same; everyone wants the same thing, exactly as I do; therefore the rules I have derived for myself based on my particular life history and cultural conditioning should be enforced on everyone" kind of mind virus.

Yet when you look at Elon Musk's words you don't see an imperialist?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EksIy3aW0AEIsK-?format=jpg&name=...

He seems to have learned something from since then. Maybe it took things affecting his bottomline.