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Is this censorship? Why was a post flagged? Is it a post shadow ban?

2 points by greatgib 6y ago

Why was the following post flagged and even so much disabled that we can't comment on it anymore and the title was blanked: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25701651 ( Original link: https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/01/09/the-woke-purge/ ) Is this censorship? As far as I can see, the article is not supporting Trump or its behavior, is not calling for violence or anything that would be reprehensible. I did not know the website but it does not look to be an extremist website also. So, as far as I can see, this was just an opinion on the corporate censorship of free speech, and it looks like that the flagged/censorship of it here is kind of a proof of the point of the author... So, please, I would really like to understand if there was something particular I did not see that would legitimately justify the ban of the post. Thank you!

mgh2 6y ago
Maybe: Politics, source, sensationalism https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- greatgib 6y ago
  That would be really really far fetched. This is an opinion on the risk for democracies of corporate censorship on social medias and new technologies. And it is not even really politic, because from my reading of it, he was not really taking side. What I can guess is that some people would have read it wrongly like if he was supporting Trump and his politic just because it is saying that what is done with Trump is not right.
jjgreen 6y ago
One cannot comment on a closed article, that what "closed" means. The title is not erased, enable "showdead" and go to page 3 of the site to see it is still there. As to why it is flagged, you'd have to ask the people who flagged it.
- greatgib 6y ago
  Thank you very much for the tips. Thanks to that, there was also the option "vouch" that was available to me after I dead that. It looks like that my "vouch" saved it from the flagged/dead state for the moment. I will ask there the reason for the flag. I understand the concept of the feature, and I understand that a flagged post would be hidden by default from listings. But I don't understand why, when showdead is false, the title is hidden by default when you are already on the page. Also vouch should probably be available there already. Before I was surprise to not even have an option like that.
  - gus_massa 6y ago
    > But I don't understand why, when showdead is false, the title is hidden by default when you are already on the page. Also vouch should probably be available there already. I verified this behavior. It is probably a bug. Write to the mods hn@ycombinator.com so they fix it.
just-juan-post 6y ago
Submissions marked as "dead" are done so by HN moderators. Submissions and comments that are "flagged" are done so by HN readers.
- greatgib 6y ago
  It looks like that it was both flagged and dead. I just vouched for it and it restored it from both!