Comment by toomuchtodo

It appears HN users are flagging to suppress posts, yes, not HN or its mods.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39231537 is helpful to understand some mechanics of the above.

Let "You shouldn't flag things just because you don't like them, but you should flag them if they go against the site guidelines." be your guide.

(as pvg's links to dang's comments mention, this is not HN/mod action; this is user sourced moderation activity)