That could be. But there also exists the soft censorship of deleting a peaking story as it's rising over a technicality, but then allowing later replacements that will never get as high. It probably limits the visibility of the story by 70% as it'll never hit the top spot again, but no one can technically cry censorship as it's still being allowed. It's a smart form of soft censorship without ruffling too many feathers. Not sure if that's what's happening here but it's possible