Hopefully, this will backfire on Sony big-time, and they'll learn a lesson. Its absolute nonsense that companies can have content removed so easily, and even more nonsensical that some of them take advantage of that fact so readily.

Well it is Twitter so they can do whatever they want.  Never liked the platform myself with stupid hashtags and people shorting words for character limits (used to be even worse until they allowed more characters).  Twitter, Facebook, Instagram (I know apart of Facebook), etc can all go away.  Twitter and Facebook are full of bots.   My faith in humanity would be semi restored if most people would just quit these corrupt bullshit companies.

Sony is just adding more fuel to the fire. Just let it burn.

"Protect your fans and your art as aggressively as possible" I guess you mean protect your brand image and money source as aggressively as possible. 

Anyone who uses automated copyright strikes is scum.

I don't get why they even bother at this time. The leaks are out there and theres no stopping them. The Last Of Us is a huge IP and will still sell many, many millions of copies. It just makes Sony look more insecure about the quality and the decisions of Naughty Dog.

Also OP can you remove the spoilers from the first page?

On several occassions whilst loading this thread, the images have not been hidden and once again things will be ruined for people. Its completely unnecessary

And that is exactly what sony is trying to tackle and avoid. People should be able to comfortably navigate none spoiler content without being hit with spoilers.

Nonsense

1. Sales aren't going to be majorly effected because of plot spoilers. It's a 30hr video game.
2. How exactly is this protecting their brand image? The contents of the game will be free for all to discuss, hate on, love etc when its released.

Why is it so hard for some of you to understand that this 20m selling franchise has fans who would rather not have the ending spoiled for them and the people who spent 5 years of their life working on this project would rather not have a bunch of idiots on the internet ruin it for unsuspecting fans.

Its not about whether the leak is out there, its about limiting the number of people exposed to it and I've observed trolls going out of their way to ruin it by putting spoilers under any TLOU2 related content.

There is absolutely nothing lost on the consumer side from sony being extra aggressive with censorship of leaked materials

As obtuse as it was Sony is on their right since the leakers and the "journalist" are trying to feed and fester on an even more abusive way.