I'm from Belarus and have always been immersed in the Russian info field. You probably know what these countries are known for regarding freedom of speech, expression, etc., but many people don't seem to understand why that is the case and what makes them different. Some people think it's some sort of post-soviet special Narnia that has nothing to do with them, but if you were there last 20 years and seen the whole process, you'd be horrified at how similar it was to what's happening globally.

You have to understand that neither government, corporations, nor big tech don't give a single feculence about your social issues, feelings, or anything else. Their interests and your interests are not the same. And if with corporations you can just go somewhere else, when you have your government excited to have another reason to shut people or spy on them, you should be scared, not excited with them. When they say they need to read your chats to protect children, they are excited to read your chats, not to protect children.

You don't have to guess or suggest it's a slippery slope or anything like that, you may just take a closer look at Russia. Sorry that some articles are in Russian, you don't have many good sources in English, Google Translate should do the trick well enough.

• The Insulting the feelings of believers act was adopted in 2013. To protect traditional values, right? Nah, it's because state affiliated church got tired of investigators and needed to shut them up
• The hate act was a primary focus for legislators last 10 years or so. It's needed to protect people from neo-you-know-who, right? Nah, it's to consider police and officials as social groups and incarcerate people for state critique
• Russia also loves its own law against radicals. Because you always can find something fishy on the resource, and if you don't like what this resource means for your power, you can call as such absolutely anything

EVERY single one of these laws and many, many more (like this one, or this one) were adopted to protect children, oppose radicals, fight neo-you-know-who, etc. NEVER do they go in public and say "We do that because it's easier to keep you controlled that way", and neither will your government.

It's incredibly sad to see people having the "people are mean on the internet, so we need the government to take care of that and give them full control if needed" attitude to be ever more popular. People act like their separation of powers, free speech and the opportunity to speak out against the authorities is something unconditional, god-given, and is there for perpetuity, but in reality, you are another 10 years and one bad election from being another Russia.