"At approximately 11:30 am EDT, the White House removed a petition about the TSA airport screening procedures from the White House "We the People" website. About 22,500 of the 25,000 signatures necessary for a response from the Administration were obtained when the White House unexpectedly cut short the time period for the petition. The site also went down for "maintenance" following an article in Wired that sought support for the campaign." -From epic.org
The government might be able to control free speech to a point in America, but not without a clear and public explanation. If this was an error, we should know. If there is a clause in the terms of use that allows for sudden removal of petitions, we should know. And if this is blatant censorship, we have a right to know.