This is zero to do with image protection; I couldn't care less. What I care about, when doing this job, is not having dumb flamewars. There's not a lot more to it than that.
I'm sure it's my fault for not being clearer, but you guys are taking this completely the wrong way if you think it has a whit to do with monarchism. It has to do with internet comments. That's all.
More at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32771818 in case it helps.
* but we wouldn't ban an established account for just one comment, and it looks like I made a mistake about that account's history, so I've unbanned it now. I wouldn't have done that if you hadn't replied, so thanks!
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
Banning vs. just scolding depends on what else the account has done on HN, but we don't moderate differently depending on the country people are talking about—or at least we try not to.
Needless to say, that particular case is complicated by the war, but commenters can make their substantive points about that without attacking any ethnic group.