HN ranking is very strange. But in some ways this is "old news"; Apple consistently refuse to allow what they deem to be "political" content on their App Store. Personally I strongly disagree with this kind of Maoism, but they have absolutely no intention of changing it, the public aren't going to boycott them for it, and the US government aren't going to force them to change it.

Out of curiosity, why should the government force them to change that policy?

It's hard to construct an argument that they should, other than reaching for "common carrier" status or some kind of anti-trust. To the extent that they're acting as a "publisher" they can publish what they like.

But it's still strange that Microsoft is forced to put in browser choice (and in some jurisdictions media player choice, I think), while Apple get to be a platform-monopolist. The usual argument against this is the non-dominance of the iPhone; so long as Android is the most popular OS and allows some choice of stores, I don't think anyone's successfully going to make a case against Apple.

Both the browser choice, and the "N editions" (without media player) were in the EU/EEA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Corp_v_Commission https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrowserChoice.eu

This seems to be happening more and more. It is even more noticeable if you are using a HN reader 3rd party app like me.