worse

The government takedown requests that happened during the COVID pandemic peak were the government flagging disinformation and lies.

This is the a government flagging truths that they dislike.

Also, there's a big difference when one government has a proven track-record of abusing its power to punish dissenting media. AFAIK, the Biden admin never threatened to block mergers and similar business deals over speech they disliked. Yes, government requests always have the color of authority, but I don't know of any cases where there was any even implied threat behind it.

Well, other than the possibility of legislation that would make an official legal requirement of "no, you do have a responsibility to police your platform of disinfo where constitutionally legal (eg if it's foreign-government-funded propaganda)".

But an act of congress to elevate an policy into law if self-policing doesn't work is very different from abusing executive powers to punish people without any involvement normal due process of law.