Governments asking or suggesting that media companies suppress a story, with the companies choosing to comply of their own free will, is nothing new. This is how most media censorship in the US and UK worked during WW2. Governments would explain to a newspaper or broadcast company that suppressing a story was in earnest best interest of the nation and the media company would usually comply voluntarily because they felt it was the right thing to do. There's a good argument to be made that this kind of thing really is good and proper; the government asking newspapers to stay quiet about D-Day preparations, and newspapers voluntarily complying, probably saved many lives.

But I'm worried. I fear that governments flexing this kind of soft power over media companies now in recent years is a sign of the times. I am afraid that governments see major wars on the horizon and that's why they're dusting off their old bag of tricks and asking the new tech sort of media companies to get ready to respond to censorship requests when the time comes. So it's not the wartime suppression of information that worries me the most, but rather the upcoming war it hints at.

Edit: If anybody can talk me down from this fear, I would sincerely appreciate it.