Actually I haven’t found that to be the case, often comments get removed simply because readers take issue with the post. I don’t know how many flags before a comment is hidden, but it appears to be a low threshhold. In theory a moderator can then reinstate it, but I haven’t seen that happen. For example in the comments from last week about some bee hives getting trashed, a bee keeper’s comment about how people were overreacting was removed, even though it didn’t violate any community guidelines, it simply offended a few people enough to press that flag button.
The result is an especially single minded viewpoint here in the comment threads lately.
Edited to add: And lo and behold the comment is now removed. That was a pretty ranting hysterical comment that probably violated the TOS in a few different ways, but still I think it’s more interesting (and more entertaining, ha) to see it torn to shreds than simply removed. Especially since this issue and his reaction to it are bound to become right wing talking points shortly.
