Why has this been downvoted? Remember all the stories we've heard about Google refusing to give earned bonuses to employees who shared their salary information? What about the google exec who was blacklisted for the offhand comment that software engineers should probably unionize? We've seen plenty of evidence on HN of this sentiment. Though Google today might have changed its views.

Probably because we have no idea why Google shut down the site - they're not always clear and it's not always obvious.

Stating that Google shut this particular site down because 'they were advocating for the interests of labor over the interests of large high tech companies' is long-jumping to a completely unsupported conclusion.

That makes sense--the comment wasn't speculative, and we do not know for sure. Given the history though it might very well be true.

It might. I don't think it passes the Occam's Razor test, though - given Google, I'm more inclined to go with 'an algorithm did something automatically somewhere.'

I don't know about Google, but many companies automatically block any resource that receives X number of DMCA or abuse letters.

While a human being looks at it; they just put up a generic "this blank has been blocked for terms of service violations".

Or an algorithm churned out a list for human "review".

And someone making $200k a year probably spent about 8 seconds thinking about whether to flush this particular site.

"Can't they find someone else to do this job? My stomach aches. I hear there's a new sushi chef over the next building..."

It'd be extremely short sighted to stop providing free services for this group, given that (a) they'll make press noise about it and (b) it is extremely easy for them to set up again anywhere else. They're literally just a text web page, they don't need Google site support in anyway.