I feel like the TikTok ban is only the start.
The US is pissed that it couldn’t 100% control the narrative on Israel genociding Palestine and sees the internet as the reason why. They’ve already put a lot of effort into homogenising and controlling the narrative on most big social media sites. I wouldn’t be surprised if they started cracking down more under the guise of “stopping misinformation”
We’ve been in a huge censoring wave for the last 8 years. Since Trump, violent and peaceful resistance to his actions get you delisted, shadow banned, etc. They make some gestures towards banning people on the other side, but society is awash with a miasma of white supremacy, that you cannot really ban it. You can just ban those that get a little too mean.
Additionally, all of these platforms have spent humongous amounts of money basically banning words that more accurately explain the world, killing, murder, suicide, genocide, occupation, resistance, etc. We’ve found ways of circumventing it with dollar signs, blacking out words, emojis, etc. But it makes that information harder and harder to find.
Add in the extensive self-censorship people are doing (unalived) because they don’t know what will get them in trouble with the platforms. Now that I think about it I’m kind of surprised I don’t recall hearing “Chilling effect” recently.