DU doesn't pull threads over profanity. They pull them over death threats against the president.
Violent statements are acceptable there.
Ah, well, that makes sense, since there's no shortage of obscenity remaining. Some of what they pull must just be intense personal attacks, or threats against other posters, though-- can there be *that* many death threats to Bush in every thread??
Did these people really get out and vote, much less help Kerry? You get the idea some of them are hard pressed to put down the bong and return the video to Blockbuster.
They may not all be death threats but repeated posts calling conservative Christians "retarded" and calls for actual riots in the streets will get things shut down (eventually).
There were mobs trying to coordinate attack strategy on DU.
One of the threads they had supporting the "Iraqis" (terrorists fighting in Iraq) killing American troops (earlier this year) eventually got pulled because The Wall Street Journal wrote about it online and in print. It reflected "badly" on DU so that thread disappeared. Revisionist history. "It never happened". The thread lasted long enough that it made it into print with the thread remaining ONLINE.
They need the outside world's outrage to realize when their hateful rhetoric crosses the line. There is no internal censor that says "hey, whoa, this is no good". They DO censor posts of conservative viewpoints (and those critical of whoever the current Democrat candidate is) so it is NOT a "we support free speech" issue. They just don't understand the outrage.