It could be if it were true, but it's inaccurate. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37740928.

I think HN has more than earned the benefit of the doubt here. I've been visiting this forum well over 10 years and have never noted heavy handed moderation[1]. When I've looked at banned users there is always a clear track record of abuse/violation of rules/spamminess. HN breaks sometimes but there's a big difference between intentional and unintentional DoS

[1] I don't like the shadow banning though