Steve Shaw wrote: Mudcat is American. America is the land of free speech, I'm told.
Don't misunderstand the first amendment. It says (despite what Donald Trump thinks) that the government can't stop you from saying what you want.
This has nothing whatsoever to do with what you can say in a personal, private, or corporate context. If you come into my house and say, "Vaccines cause autism" or "Vladimir Putin is not a war criminal," I can and will throw you out as someone too stupid to be allowed in a civilized home. Facebook or Mudcat have similar rights to restrict speech. Often such restrictions come about to prevent fights or to help preserve other rights.
Furthermore, even the first amendment restriction on government restrictions on speech is not absolute. For example, the support groups I facilitate for the Autism Society of America cannot discuss politics or religion (or the practice of medicine). This is required by the rules concerning non-profit groups that take government money. (Other non-profits are somewhat freer, but the point is, the government can restrict speech in exchange for certain other privileges.)
I know that Joe does take steps to keep the peace around here. That is within his rights -- this is a service he offers to you, not a guarantee of users' abilities to spout off on irrelevant things. But I wouldn't get paranoid about it -- it appears Joe deleted (or something) one of my posts about my best-ever guitar, not because it violated any sort of speech rights but because my favorite guitar was a 12-string guitar and not a 6-string! :-)
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sj