Of course the admins will claim this isn't the case, but there's no reason to believe them, and lying is commercial companies' standard modus operandi.
No, it's flagged because it's one of those controversial political topics that often leads to polarized slapfights and flamewars.
And that's proven by the a number of inflammatory, flamebait comments already in this thread.
No, but classifying prison labor as slavery is.
Now that you (and others) have flagged the thread, the people with showdead on will see that it has happened yet again, and they just might seek out a place where an actual discussion can be had.
This is bog standard HN moderation and has zero to do with "business partners", whoever those are.
Edit: please see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36005783 also.
Because only (insert your favourite US enemy here) violates human rights. US is the land of the free, the oldest democracy (whatever that means).
And because the NSA and CIA and other 3 letter agencies employ a lot of people whose task is to spread propaganda.
My uniforms when I worked for the US military were made by people we US citizens enslaved (glad to see other references to the 13th amendment here); I am not proud of that fact. I learned about it in school, as a teacher sitting in on a class taught by the social studies teacher.
If I were in prison I would want: A sense of hope that I could learn and grow and continue to be a full and dignified human until I die. To this end, counseling, teaching, work that pays fairly, and general social, emotional, and intellectual rehabilitation within my zone of proximal development (teacher jargon per Lev Vygotsky) would be appropriate, and worth taxpayer expense, regardless of what I did to end up in prison.
Frodo told Gandalf he wished Bilbo had killed Gollum when Bilbo had the chance, and Gandalf said no- we don't know what good anyone might do in their lifetime. This convinced me that the death penalty is wrong. Banishment is better, and even better with rehabilitation efforts. I accept the risk that a relative few people in a well-designed system will still do more harm than good.