https://theintercept.com/2022/10/31/social-media-disinformation-dhs/Leaked conversations from Dept. of Homeland Security show folks at Facebook and Twitter routinely communicated with government officials to drive what sort of content was permissible on the platforms.
Included in these monthly communications/meetings was Vijaya Gadde (now fired), head of Twitter's head of Legal, Trust, and Safety, among other heads of companies from Facebook, Microsoft, etc.
When they laid out perma bans for the COVID "disinformation," part of it was government bureaucracy detailing what sort of conversations are and aren't permissible.
Per The Intercept:
DHS plans to target inaccurate information on “the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, racial justice, U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the nature of U.S. support to Ukraine.”
Right, because the U.S. government should be dictating to all the big tech platforms how the rest of us should think on these controversial and contentious topics.
Elon can have his first amendment/pro-free speech outlook on twitter if he'd like, but if the government steps in and forces regulation then he has no option but to comply. I can only assume that he's in the cross hairs.