It's a very serious complaint. Extremely authoritarian governments, dictatorships and totalitarianisms, subject people to atrocious and repugnant restrictions in order to preserve the most absolute control in their hands. Bending the will of the people allows them to have power over everyone and to do whatever they want (and what they want generally goes against the legitimate right of citizens). How to oppose when the apparatus of real and substantive violence is in those hands? Lobbying through the exercise of free thought. But this involves enormous risks for people.
However, people who rebel are in the crosshairs of authoritarianism because they possess great power, and one of their strongest expressions is words.
In my country, Venezuela, there have been attempts to impose similar laws that have stifled freedom of expression (fortunately, our government is inefficient and chaotic even to impose its dictatorship) and their application has fatally resulted in the near disappearance of the traditional media. The Internet and social networks have saved us from the total and absolute imposition of silence in the face of the atrocities of our country's government (fortunately, today it is at a difficult juncture that, apparently, will lead to its exit. I hope so!)
Belarus has a very difficult outlook. No nation should live under such a dire shadow. I wish with all my heart a lot of strength to its people for them to advance towards freedom!