Have put these both in one thread.
Firstly, I was under the impression that MN encouraged free speech to the degree at least where people could discuss specific topics although of course personal attacks have always been removed. But it seems that more and more lately topic discussions are being sensored to the point that if someone reports them then they're deleted in the name of not being in the spirit of mumsnet, while meanwhile the boards are full of blatantly troll posts, some of which are horifically upsetting to users and some are encouraging the discussion of disturbing subjects such as childhood sexual abuse and those are left to stand on the basis that "we have no reason to believe the OP isn't genuine." It seems that e.g. Discussion of the Charlie Gard case has now been sensored even though it is heavily prevalent in the news and there are some awful attacks happening on a children's hospital and their staff by what can only be described as vijilanti's, and while I absolutely do think that these parents should perhaps be left in peace to allow their child to pass peacefully and to find their way forward thereafter, the risk here is that talk of the vijilanti action has been allowed to stand, something which could potentially be damaging to the reputation of GOSH and also bring unease and discomfort to anyone needing treatment there for their child, whereas discussion of the wider issues including sympathy for the parents has been sensored to the point that all Charlie Gard threads are essentially being deleted. This isn't the first time that discussion has been sensored on MN, but really, a parenting forum sensoring discussion around a child illness issue when that discussion is widely available in the mainstream news surely is not going to show MN in a very good light is it?
Moving on from sensorship though, I've just been reading a thread where a post was deleted for allegedly being racist when actually it simply pointed out facts. Many other posts pointed out the same, and the poster has IMO been unnecessarily branded racist when she absolutely was not. Again this isn't the first time posts have been deleted even though there was no ill intent behind them. This to me gives the impression that if an individual post is reported then HQ donn't actually read it or the context of the thread but that they simply delete on the say-so of the reporter?