The West is a too broad term, we have very different political systems among Western countries. In some of them cancel culture and big tech aren’t that strong. Besides, it is really different from USSR. Do you know any example in the West in XXI century where a poet or a writer were censored to death?
No, the chilling effect is very different. One is a tragedy that needs to be brought to justice, the second one is never going to get any semblance of justice from its very principle.
tell that to the school teacher from Birmingham that is in hiding because they showed a cartoon to children. I'm sure they're real happy about justice.
do you remember how they changed their profile pictures to include a transparent french flag? do you also remember how the majority didn't share the actual cartoons that were used to justify the attacks? if the virtue signallers did, the social media companies would have censored it. if the virtue signallers did and the social media companies didn't censor it, there would have been additional riots and the companies would have been banned in ~20 countries.