Oh yes, labs! They're gorgeous animals, and great people :)
Yeah, this is how people are removed from HIVE, without actually removing them. You can't make money, you can't reach people, you can't grow. And as your rep falls, you're barely able to be seen. It has been done exactly this way to dozens of great content-creators that I was personally aware of, which means it's happening to thousands.
Sure, I can make new accounts, like @GirlsofGreen and @FreedomConvoy, but that seems to be the main claim against me. Supposedly it breaks the rules to upvote your side projects?! That's news to me. Another opinion, which some commenters are suggesting, is that it's really about removing certain content from Hive. Generally, it's "conservative", or truth based, or "conspiracy", or freedom-oriented, or nonconformist content. You would think the blockchain would be the best place for truth-speakers, activists, and whistleblowers. But after 5 years, that has never happened, and it's because those people are de facto censored by entities with money. It's built into the system here - just another animal farm. Noticing it gets you scorned. Mentioning it gets you blacklisted.
Many of those caught up in it began because they didn't know better, and continue because it's so hard to admit one was wrong, that one's actions are immoral and hypocritical. Human psychology and this blockchain's programming/settings are not a perfect match. We get things like raging bands of hypocritical bullies, spamming nonsense to the blockchain, upvoting each other, and downvoting anyone to oblivion that threatens the existing order. And because of the nature of decentralized communities, small individuals (like myself) are defenseless against such an attack, especially when mob mentality gets rolling. The little/medium guy will jump on the bandwagon against people like me, but they won't (can't) team up against whale accounts. This allows whales to remove anyone they want, as long as a bigger whale with morals doesn't notice and step in.
Everything's okay as long as it doesn't happen to you. Staying quiet is best. Once it happens, you're already done.