Here’s some counter-evidence: I just did an HN search and found this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33838556
Seems like it got plenty of attention. If you think a different take on the issue deserves attention, try submitting it. Plenty of stories randomly fail to get traction (there are several analyses of this) so you would really need to show a significant sample size of these stories getting zero traction before you could imply they are being purposefully buried.
The Twitter Files - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33838556 - Dec 2022 (1544 comments)
The Twitter Files Part 2: Twitter's Secret Blacklists - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33915734 - Dec 2022 (412 comments)
The idea that Twitter and other sites are "the digital public square" is the unfortunate result of CEOs overselling their businesses. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, etc are entertainment media first and foremost. They are not a suitable replacement for educational or public institutions, and people need to stop treating them as such.
Even when the /newest page was flooded with them and people were writing posts like
"Tell HN: We're sick and tired of hearing about Twitter"
The whole point of HN is it is doesn't traffic in outrage. I might post something about political science but I won't post anything about politics. Once in a while you can stoke some outrage about how Google killed your favorite product or how you got bullied in elementary school but it is not like Twitter which is filled with pithy slogans and people complaining that they are being censored when all they are trying to do is assert their membership in a tribe.
(Somebody should start a site called "me too" where there is no censorship because you can assert your membership in your tribe by clicking the "me too" button. What's valuable about speech, priceless even, is people having the opportunity to really think about something and say something original. If people are "free" to spout nonsense through a megaphone there's not a lot of value in that.)
Anyway when I hear people complain about censorship I can't help but think about this song:
There's obviously been a lot of news - everyone is probably sick to death of it, but this is a site where people express their interest based on voting. HN readers can just not vote on Twitter stuff if it's no longer interesting.
Flagging, on the other hand, doesn't feel like the correct approach... If people disagree with the Ask HN question here (and I can see why as it's possibly a bit hyperbolic) I think the correct action is to either ignore it, or provide comments with counterarguments.
To me, flagging this seems to lend credence to the point OP is actually trying to make (regardless of whether you agree with the way the point is being made...)
Anything resting upon premises which contradict HN's political norms is therefore 'political'.
Flamewars usually ensue.
Therefore, before discussing a topic, be sure that the political premises are agreeable to the status quo.
This scandal does not pass the above test.
It isn't, and it doesn't, and the breathless hyperbole with which you describe it illustrates why it needs to be buried. "The Twitter Files" is clearly just this year's "Hunter Biden's Laptop" which was that year's "DNC Leaks prove treason" which was that year's Pizzagate. There's nothing of intellectual or technical interest here, it's just the American right throwing shit against the wall and hoping something sticks. It's no coincidence this story "broke" so soon after a certain orange bad man announced his candidacy.
Imagine if Trump asked Twitter to remove discussions about a "pee tape." The request alone would have been months of major media miasma, had it been granted they'd have called for bloodshed.