Yes, it's purely to apply pressure. It's meant to play a rough and tough game of assuming the worst, and demanding that they play fair with words and ideas, and aren't allowed to try to force their opinion on everyone. It's a harsh stance where the opposition to censorship becomes more important than "philosophical debate about the nature of truth", and the stakes become increasingly high, as well as how brutally the game must be played.

Once this sort of thing calms down, I'm sure rational science and technological progress will continue in the normal logical and evidence based fashion.

If people want a "community hub" someplace on the internet, then it ought to play by the idea that true and good ideas can be proven with time and cannot be permanently tarnished or defeated, while bad ideas and wrong information will always begin to falter and decay, never being able to prove its point or purpose in the long-term.

I have absolutely no fear of any words a person might say, nor do I fear any creation of AI, be it words, images, or motion picture/Full VR. I will just use it as I do any machine, and that is according to my will.