The same thing happened with our local linux user's group #cialug

Forcibly how?

freenode staff took over en masse all channels who mentioned "libera" in their topic. It's been discussed all over HN:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27286628

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27285774

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27285802

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27287283

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27287750 (gentoo)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27287807 (raku)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27288673 (elixir)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27288771 (alegro)

I don't know how I missed that...

All operators and bans were removed and the channel was forcibly redirected to ##clasp.

See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27289071