You're a right I had to be more precise about my arguments, I found the post describing why they have silenced .social/.online https://www.patreon.com/posts/silencing-social-74474015, .social/.online can federate with mstdn.io, an instance banned on mastodon.art, silencing .social/.online will not change anything in defending their users but only to pressure these instances and quote: "I am, of course, hoping that maybe by us silencing them, we can initiate some kind of change in the moderation there.". You say: "Maybe they just want to run their instance their way -- the ultimate freedom!" but it is clear that they are trying to moderate the instances of others according to their own vision.