Censorship is a necessity for a functioning system. Even by voting in a democratic system, you're "censoring" the losers for a period of time... in that their a

Censorship is a necessity for a functioning system. Even by voting in a democratic system, you're "censoring" the losers for a period of time... in that their ability to act out their principles or interests are limited. Hackernews works by flagging and downvoting, just as much as it does due to its algorithm and upvoting. "Free speech" is an outdated concept. When it was useful back in the day, anti-establishment propaganda could be blocked through physical means (stop the guy talking, stop the person bringing the newspaper)... and dissidents could be targeted using force. Even after that in the days of legacy media, the media houses that didn't comply with major economic interests could be easily targeted and silenced... which is why the illusion of free speech could be maintained. None of that is possible in the digital world... so content needs to be moderated/censored. Those who control the censors have a lot of power. That is not going to change... and various interests will continue to fight for that power.