My immediate assumption was this is not the US is trying to restrict education. I suspect this was triggered by Coursera accepting money. The US has laws again

My immediate assumption was this is not the US is trying to restrict education. I suspect this was triggered by Coursera accepting money. The US has laws against doing business with certain countries. When Coursera started offering signature track classes where they charged money they are now doing business with restricted regimes. I have been surprised that there is no discussion of your initial point, that there are very rational reasons why a state might want to control access to educational material. Sure maybe offering people will lead to greater humanity ... or maybe it will lead to terrorists who can build sophisticated drone bombs. I don't know but I'm surprised it not a more prominent issue.