For this particular ban, reviewing the discussion involved, it appears that this user had been reported reported multiple times. To explain the thought process behind the ban, the first post seemed antagonistic ("Who gives a shit?). And in the follow up post, even though the mod team agreed that this user was criticizing the government, we thought that, on balance, saying "the Japanese government should worry about more important things" seemed overly dismissive. Since the subject of comfort women is a painful subject to the people of many Asian countries, and since the statue was ultimately meant to spark discussion, indicating that the Japanese government should ignore the statue (instead of issuing an apology) seemed problematic. However, after getting feedback on this ban, and after consultation with additional staff, we realized we overextended and have opted to undo the ban. Apologies to tophu and to the thread at large.
