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The mod banning these users is the same mod who made the posts they downvoted. This is mod abuse, turning the downvote button into an auto-self-ban button.
The message is "If you disagree with me, you will be banned"
Monitoring and banning users for using lemmy as intended to signal boost your opinion should be grounds to have all mod privileges removed. This behaviour undermines the integrity of the server and the wider fediverse.
Vote visibility is off by default (IIRC) on reddit so at least there folks wouldn't be banned just for downvoting someone.
Votes are visible to mods for at least six months
If that's the case on reddit it must be pretty recent because I don't recall it from my time there.