Thanks for this. I’m actually relieved to know that WordPress realizes there was a problem in their system and rectified it … even if it means my petition meant nothing in the course of events. What my petition did do was show me what an amazingly strong community we have here. Seeing so many people pull together was encouraging and inspirational. My faith in WordPress is restored. My faith in the real people here never wavered.
Here is an update I’ve received after posting the same question in the Blogging101 course today. For me this is enough of an answer. I hope it is okay for you guys to. Thought I let you know:
“Hopefully, I can clarify a few things. No blogs have been shut down by wordpress.com. There are a few bloggers whose ability to like and follow other blogs has been paused, in these cases because the volume of likes/follows was quite high — in the many thousands a day. The bloggers are considering shutting down their blogs themselves, but our support team is also working internally to figure out the best way to respond to the issue of non-spam bloggers using likes and follows at a volume typically associated with spam accounts.
I’m happy to answer any questions to to clarify anything that’s unclear about this — let me know. Again, these…
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lindaghill.com 
January 17, 2015 at 1:15 pm
I’m one of those who use the ‘like’ button a lot. I wasn’t aware of any problem it was causing. Many of my readers use the ‘like’ button at my blog too. My reader list is nothing like yours or the one at Harsh Reality, but I haven’t had a lot of spam at my blog and the spam I get is caught.The difference may be that because I don’t have as many followers, I can take the time to scrutinize the comments in the spam hold closer.
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January 16, 2015 at 2:03 pm
Your petition and the high number of reblogs from your site and other sites WILL have made a difference Linda 😀
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January 16, 2015 at 1:59 pm
I think the petition you made helped a great deal, it let word press know that we are not just faceless bloggers but an entire community who will not tolerate heavy handed censorship, I think it also brought us all together and united us all , and it certainly showed OM and story time with john that they have allies and friends around the world who genuinely care about them. I also think it brought comfort to everyone letting them know if they too run up against word press for no valid reason, that the masses will rally for them too, it is a comfort to know.
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