I know that those who groups who send unsolicited commercial e-mail have been blocked by AOL, MSN or Yahoo in the past, resulting in spammers crying freedom of speech issues. And a few years ago AOL removed a member's pro KKK webpage after a number of complaints, and there was some controversy surrounding that too.
It bothers me that Yahoo would remove some offensive messages and not remove others, or remove ones that try and show a different side. But my assumption (false though it may be), is that these are moderated boards and the removals are subject to the particular biases of the moderators. I have participated in message boards on AOL and even from group to group there are differing standards for what is allowed. For example, Parent Soup message boards allow links to commercial sites in signature files. But the Women Talk boards don't, and often pull posts. I know mine were pulled because I had a link to my Epinions profile in my sig. They not only want members to adhere to AOL's TOS, but to Talk Women's TOS as well. Parent Soup is a little more lenient in that regard. Still, the people who do the moderating are volunteers who often get a little delete happy if they can justify something as a personal attack. It can get really annoying at times, but I've found that some of the more experienced moderators will try and run herd on the new, pull-happy ones.
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*~*~*~*Amy*~*~*~*
Mom to two: a 5 year old whose favorite pastimes are screeching and eating, and an 11 month old who loves destroying things and trying to injure herself. | 
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