If you post something to the public internet, you cannot control where it ends up. If that is a problem for you, then you should probably not post on a non-private social media account. That doesn’t negate their right to delete their post after, of course, like this guy has done. Just can’t expect that nobody saw it or screenshotted it or whatever.

WTF... if I remember correctly, the legality of linking (as opposed to copying content) was already established by a few court cases long ago.

I could understand if your personal site gets "HN'd", but a Twitter user doesn't pay for bandwidth.

There's a wide chasm between good manners and legality. Don't get offended when your actions offend people. At best, it's hypocritical. Said differently: the legality of complaining about people being rude is already established. It isn't even slander/libel if you weren't actually rude, because being rude isn't a crime.

It's quite simple: Whitequark deleted the thread because there is a portion of users/readers on HN that are toxic and/or hostile. People don't want to deal with that type of traffic blowing up their Twitter notification feed.