Hi ebliever,
You seem to take free thought too literally when making a case for it against a self-moderated topic.
Also, you shouldn't mix up free thought with freedom of thought and freedom of speech/expression.
To help you along here are two qoutes from wikipedia/freethought:
"Freethought or free thought is a philosophical viewpoint which holds that positions regarding truth should be formed on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism, rather than authority, tradition, or other dogmas."
"Freethought holds that individuals should not accept ideas proposed as truth without recourse to knowledge and reason. Thus, freethinkers strive to build their opinions on the basis of facts, scientific inquiry, and logical principles, independent of any logical fallacies or the intellectually limiting effects of authority, confirmation bias, cognitive bias, conventional wisdom, popular culture, prejudice, sectarianism, tradition, urban legend, and all other dogmas."
Now that the notion 'free thought' is clarified, you can surely understand why self-moderation to stave off and censor trolls and other junk is a sensible choice and fits well within the framework of free thought. Therefore, this isn't an instance of a contradiction or inconsistency.
Thank you for bringing it up so it could be clarified and thank you for the best wishes, best wishes to you too.
Kind regards,
Philadelphia
AtheistCoin Marketing/PR/Promo
https://twitter.com/Philadelly