This is a lot worse than a simple “crackdown on free speech”.
This is fulfillment of Orwell’s vision that the Party can change the meaning of 2+2 at will, and that the people’s minds will have been so damaged by the Telescreen that they will believe it.
The only thing he got wrong - he believed that most people would have a Telescreen that could not be turned off. Even Orwell didn’t imagine that people would willingly turn it on.
Yes. This is an attempt to control what people believe.