Comment by ryandrake
10 days ago
Yea, a lot of people blame HN, but when these articles get flag-censored, it's because human beings are abusing the "flag" button as a mega-downvote to try to erase things, often things that make them feel uneasy about their politics or their employer or how they choose to make their money. Or, they are just hero worshipers who flag anything critical of their hero.
HN's system of treating flagging as a mega-downvote doesn't help, but ultimately I don't think they are putting that much weight on the scale themselves.
Either that or it is set up in such a way that that isn't necessary. Because if certain articles get flagged disproportionally and you have the ability to selectively revive them then you achieve the same thing. It's always difficult to separate HN from YC and YC is investor in more than one company that does very questionable things.
Keep in mind that Start-up School featured Musk, Zuckerberg and Altman, that Altman at some point ran YC and that they're investors in Flock. All of these guys use their money to influence politics and legislation, I think it is safe to assume that there is a link, even though we don't know how much of a link there is, just like it is safe to assume that both Tom and Dan are doing their level best to keep HN working despite an onslaught of trash. None of these are mutually exclusive. But I really think it is a step too far to assume that they put their thumb on the scale in an active way.