Livefyre and Disqus both have tools for moderation and spam control, probably better than Facebook since comments are the primary business of Livefyre and Disqus. Regarding contents of comments, I would think the Safe Harbor act and/or First Amendment protections would be sufficient for a news organization.
So I'm going to be generous and agree with your statement at face value, it probably did have nothing to do with any of the things you mentioned.
So I'm going to be generous and agree with your statement at face value, it probably did have nothing to do with any of the things you mentioned.