These policies were put in place because the anti-vax and election skepticism content was being promoted by military intelligence organizations that were trying to undermine democracy and public healthy in the US.

The US military also promoted anti-vax propaganda in the Philippines [0].

A lot of the comments here raise good points about silencing well meaning people expressing their opinion.

But information warfare is a fundamental part of modern warfare. And it's effective.

An American company or individual committing fraud can be dealt with in the court system. But we don't yet have a good remedy for how to deal with a military power flooding social media with information intentionally designed to mislead and cause harm for people who take it seriously.

So

> I think we have to realize silencing people doesn't work

it seems to have been reasonably effective at combating disinformation networks

> It just causes the ideas to metastasize

I don't think this is generally true. If you look at old disinformation campaigns like the idea that the US faked the moon landings, it's mostly confined to a small group of people who are prone to conspiracy thinking. The idea of a disinformation campaign is you make it appear like a crazy idea has broad support. Making it appear that way requires fake accounts or at least boosters who are in on the scheme. Taking that away means the ideas compete on their own merit, and the ideas are typically real stinkers.

[0] https://www.btimesonline.com/articles/167919/20240727/u-s-ad...