Is Google 'attacking the network' by censoring it's data and AI results for political reasons? Is X. Is Facebook?
Whomever is censoring data which beforehand was freely written and sent to the network, is attacking the network, no exception. Even if the state does it, it is an attack on the network.
If a network is distributed like these are, then if you censor what data runs across it, even if you own the network, then you automatically in law, become a trusted third party much like we see with commercial banks. And a TTP has a fiduciary duty to protect its users. Which means it must cause them no harm or face the consequences.
So we reach an impasse here. Who defines what is protecting and what is not protecting, users? Is it the corporation who owns the network. The state who orders them. Or someone else? And who of these defines what is allowed to be sent to and registered on, the network?
Whatever. Whomever is censoring data which beforehand was freely written and sent to the network, is attacking the network, no exception. Even if the state does it, it is an attack on the network.
"attacking" is maybe too strong a word. But you get the point. Censorship might even be found illegal if taken through a civil law court. This is what the likes of Assange are still unwilling to accept. Largely because they want the world to be censorship resistant, only when it is their politics, dat and money at stake.