"Public Service Announcement: The Right to Free Speech means the government can't arrest you for what you say."
Where were people arrested? Or their talk declared illegal?
Visibility on some plattforms was reduced and you can argue, that it is a slippery slope, if government intervention with cooperations that host those plattforms, happens in a nontranparent way. (I do think this was bad, opening ways for secret manipulation)
But people could (and did) continiue to talk about their alternative theories for ages.