Could be due to HN title's limit? For example, I tried to submit a story with this title - Google blocks man’s email account over nude childhood photo; Gujarat HC issues notice to firm - but it exceeds HN's title word limit. So I had to edit it to - Google blocks email account over nude toddler photo; Court issues notice to firm ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39756841 ) to fit it within the word limit. Now, I get the use of "toddler" instead of "childhood" in the title does cause a slight loss of context, but it's the closest match I could think of to retain most of the headline as HN guidelines demand. So the "editorialising" could just be as simple as us trying to be "editors" on HN to meet its guidelines, rather than politics. (Also, I didn't find the term offensive and feel the submitted title is much better than the actual title on the article).