Hey,
in these if statements, you need to use relational operators. Since you want to see if you're variable is equal to a certain string, you need the '==' (two equal signs).
So you're code would look like this
-- local require commands start
local component= require (“component”)
local sides = require(“sides”)
local rs = component.redstone
local event = require(“event”)
-- local os = require(“os”) remove this, the os lib does not need to be required, I think
-- local require commands end
-- Main function start
local function main()
local username, message = event.pul