I am not one of the downvoters, but I assume it is because you make unsusbtantiated accusations of defensive behaviour about most of the Europeans on HN. It's flame bait.

Doesn't this whole HN post kind of substantiate it though? The article itself was incorrectly flagged. So far I see no comments addressing the content of the article at all. I think it's completely fair to describe the response here as reflexively defensive.

I do agree that my comment is too broad in implicating most Europeans. I do think the standard European response on HN is how I described it, but presumably most Europeans on HN don't actually contribute to these discussions and it's misleading to extend the point to them.

I see a lot of posts saying they support this kind of regulation. Not sure how you know they are all European posters, or why supporting it should be seen as a defensive stance.