[PaulHoule]

Moderation isn't necessarily censorship.

Think of the evening news on TV. You have half an hour to fill, you are going to have to pick the most relevant things. Some things will make the cut, some won't.

Once you get to 24 hours news then it is another thing, because they are repeating the same 15 minutes over and over again. The model to describe that is not censorship, it is spam, electronic warfare, jamming -- an entirely disingenuous communication that superficially looks like "speech" but has nothing to do with "free speech" and such. In fact, it inhibits real communication the same way weed killer kills plants.

[rankam]

Online isn't the evening news or a 24 hour news station - I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. HN doesn't only moderate so that the "best" content makes it to the top, they also moderate (censor) certain topics - you don't see a lot about politics on HN because they don't want those subjects discussed on the HN platform.