Banning quickly, then unbanning slowly, usually by special request, works just fine for authoritarians. If it matters to enough people, you'll hear about it, and if it matters to important or wealthy people it will create an opportunity for graft/partnership. So, now that VLC (for example) has called you to get you to unban their software, you can call them later to get a feature removed or put in, or just free/discounted consulting on how to block objectionable streams (for example), with a vague threat of rebanning hanging over the discussion.

Indonesia just banned the entire foreign internet (without the west caring), and is requiring sites that want to operate within the country to apply for whitelisting.

edit: https://thediplomat.com/2022/07/internet-freedom-in-indonesi...

background: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/02/indonesias-proposed-on...