Limiting engagement is not the same thing as limiting speech. One implies, as you've intended, that speech was censored.
I would argue they're the same thing. Me "liking" something by clicking a button is speech
Twitter is completely free to ban anyone they want for any reason they want. Don’t want that? Nationalize it or set rules that social media companies are not allowed to ban anyone no matter what they say.
The criticism above is a criticism of how Twitter is handling situation, not how the government should handle it. Just because they're free to do so doesn't mean that it can't be criticised.
Quite often twitter seems to have a pattern of escalations. They remove verification. They "accidentally" take action. And then they ban for real. So it seems like it should be taken as a threat.