--- title: Analyzing HN moderation & censorship | daily.dev description: A data-driven analysis of Hacker News moderation practices, based on months of scraping the HN API. Covers the tools moderators use (downweighting, burying,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/analyzing-hn-moderation-censorship-bxvp2icrw twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Analyzing HN moderation & censorship | daily.dev og:description: A data-driven analysis of Hacker News moderation practices, based on months of scraping the HN API. Covers the tools moderators use (downweighting, burying,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/analyzing-hn-moderation-censorship-bxvp2icrw og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Bxvp2Icrw.png og:image:alt: Analyzing HN moderation & censorship og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Analyzing HN moderation & censorship **[Drew DeVault](https://daily.dev/sources/drewdevault)** · 12 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A data-driven analysis of Hacker News moderation practices, based on months of scraping the HN API. Covers the tools moderators use (downweighting, burying, killing, shadowbanning), how user flagging can be abused for censorship, and the lack of transparency around moderator actions. Includes direct quotes from HN moderator Dan clarifying policies. Concludes with suggestions for a public audit log, moderator review queues for flagged posts, and more community-appointed moderators. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The Mysterious Forces Steering Views on Hacker News](https://daily.dev/posts/the-mysterious-forces-steering-views-on-hacker-news-zogbiqr8r) · Lobsters · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Ask HN: Add flag for AI-generated articles](https://daily.dev/posts/ask-hn-add-flag-for-ai-generated-articles-ggz46lks4) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The science of how \(and when\) we decide to self-censor](https://daily.dev/posts/the-science-of-how-and-when-we-decide-to-self-censor-4iyxvxbni) · Ars Technica · 0 upvotes · 1 comments - [Let's stop using flags as down-vote](https://daily.dev/posts/let-s-stop-using-flags-as-down-vote-dpj14c1xj) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#community](https://daily.dev/tags/community), [#data-analysis](https://daily.dev/tags/data-analysis) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/analyzing-hn-moderation-censorship-bxvp2icrw) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Analyzing HN moderation & censorship","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/analyzing-hn-moderation-censorship-bxvp2icrw","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/analyzing-hn-moderation-censorship-bxvp2icrw"},"datePublished":"2026-03-31T12:28:12.453Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T12:40:58.080Z","description":"A data-driven analysis of Hacker News moderation practices, based on months of scraping the HN API. 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