I believe they changed when the government put pressure on social media during COVID. I think that caused a huge attitude shift among the right.

Bill Maher rather famously lost his job on ABC 20+ years ago related to his comments about the 9/11 hijackers. I don't think conservatives cancelling people in the media for speech they don't like is anything new within the last 5 years.

Wasn't a lot of that pressure coming from a right wing government? COVID's initial year and a bit was under the first Trump admin.