They were blacklisting/shadow banning/etc. any comments or information regarding it - those in power and the tech companies. It's only recently that they couldn't keep a lid on it, that the "powers that be" are acknowledging it for the masses.
People can forget or gloss over what happened, but it did happen - and was prevalent, during the course of how the pandemic was managed. The smears against scientists who even brought up such information (as they are now acknowledging publicly) was severe.