I got banned here for saying this but I'll continue to say it nevertheless. We are already in the Censorship Era. This is an Orwellian Nightmare. The quicker this is brought under control the better. The last thing we need is Corporate Overlords controlling what we say or do online. This includes Hacker News as well.
That said I think we're more a corporate oligarchy that is behaving like a feudal system.
We essentially seem to have corporate lords who are trying to appease the king government. Whether it be via censorship or other tools.