It set off the software's flamewar detector a.k.a. overheated discussion detector. I've turned the penalty off and rolled back the clock on the story to compensate.
Posts without URLs (Ask HN, Tell HN, etc.) also start off with a penalty, and I've turned that off too.
Who funded Reddit has zero to do with how HN is moderated. This is the sort of explanation people reach for at the first sign of anything that's partially consistent with it. If you think about it, that's already enough to tell you that the logic is wrong: it explains way too much!
(As for the bit about YC, it sounds pretty weird to me but I don't know what you're referring to.)
