This is not at all surprising in that censorship is one of the few viable business models for a 'free-to-play' social network.
Defusing and diffusing social movements before they get traction is something many organizations with money are going to find appealing whether or not it works...
Facebook understands this quite well and is the canonical example of the model; but if you don't think that "Steering the conversation" is a core value proposition for privately operated social networks ( including Hacker News ) that are free to the general public; you are naive.
Defusing and diffusing social movements before they get traction is something many organizations with money are going to find appealing whether or not it works...
Facebook understands this quite well and is the canonical example of the model; but if you don't think that "Steering the conversation" is a core value proposition for privately operated social networks ( including Hacker News ) that are free to the general public; you are naive.