"Are flags censorship" isn't a factual question. "Censorship" is a pejorative that indicates you don't like something—so if a story you liked was flagged, it was 'censored', and if you disliked the story, then it was 'moderated', 'curated', or some such. The factual aspect, that user flags cause stories to fall in rank, is the same either way.

We reduce or turn off flags on YC-related political stories for a very specialized reason: the community's trust in HN is its most important asset and we don't want to jeopardize that. It doesn't make those stories and threads any better for this site than the usual flamewars; it means that the cost of letting those flames burn hotter than usual is smaller than taking risks with the community's trust.

At some point, though, enough is enough. For the latest barrage of political stories we should probably revert to normal moderation practice, unless significant new information appears.