Criminal
Wow that is taking it to the next level.
... suppress the visibility of my post...
All it takes is the click of a button and... ta-da it's back. Don't take a downvote so dang personal. Most people don't downvote just to downvote, most likely there is some sort of abuse behind it. Yes there are a few that get wild with the downvotes. People will be people. And people do weird stuff.
I kind of agree with @praheshtyagi.
In most cases I've researched where users ask to have a downvote removed from a downvoter willing to hear them, I find similar instances of escalated petty conflict...
Usually the person who was downvoted feels attacked personally. Often they take the matter very seriously and wants to redeem themselves by taking corrective action. They don't want to continue receiving downvotes and want to restore their reputation. They are willing to humble themselves by politely asking for help or forgiveness.
The person who flagged them either acts responsibly and states their reason and is willing to forgive if certain corrective measures are taking, or...
They make fun of the person downvoted with insults ("you are a liar", "plagiarist", "get over it", etc.) and sometimes retaliate with more damage by throwing additional downvotes, creating a downvote trail, or adding to a permanent blacklist.
Sometimes the people downvoted have no understanding of how to demonstrate their content is original content, and are simply sharing content like they always have done in the past from their various alternative social media accounts.
Many people choose to protect their blockchain anonymity, for fear of being persecuted in their home country. To unmask their identity for the sake or proving authorship of a snap photo is not worth the risk of danger that could cause their household.
They post something random on Hive, and suddenly hostile downvotes fly in. There is not always a clear means to remove downvotes and blacklists easily. The user is more likely to rage quit or decide this blockchain business is just a pipe dream that will never work with all of these horrible downvotes coming in like flies.
Downvotes have room for improvement, just as much as the people who receive them on a regular basis. It is very disgraceful when downvotes are given without providing fair comments and options to have them removed. I am definitely on the fridge of users who feel like the blockchain needs a better downvote solution to make it less socially alienating.
I'll keep speaking my opinion when I find people discussing it. Maybe more people will realize downvotes have a more lasting impact than the penny worth it shows on face value.