> This has nothing to do whatsoever with free speech

Freedom of speech is a philosophical concept broader than the First Amendment.

The conference organizers broke their own code of conduct to censor this article’s distribution. That violates principles of free speech. If they did it at the behest of a government official, that would be a First Amendment issue. We don’t have any evidence of that right now, but it isn’t a question which has been seriously investigated yet.

They removed him due to fear of reprisal from the federal government. How could that have nothing to do with free speech?