The mod banning these users is the same mod who made the posts they downvoted. This is mod abuse, turning the downvote button into an auto-self-ban button.
The message is “If you disagree with me, you will be banned”
Monitoring and banning users for using lemmy as intended to signal boost your opinion should be grounds to have all mod privileges removed. This behaviour undermines the integrity of the server and the wider fediverse.
Well, as I just showed in the definition, censorship can also be suppression of content without banning. If the government says, you can’t show X content before 9PM on television that is a form of censorship (even though anyone that wants to see that content can still freely see it)
That’s according to you. Does everyone agree with that? Also, how does it compare with downvoting exactly?