The fun fact is correct. However, the ban of the top 20 witness was not clearly "for talking about another project". In fact it was abrupt and done without any explanation at all (as far as I know, to this day there still has not been one).
It put the Steem blockchain at risk (granted small risk in practice since it was only one witness) because of the inability of an elected top 20 witness to communicate with the developer team in the event of chain emergencies (malfunction, critical vulnerability, etc.) which has happened before and required coordination between these parties to address.
I believe my assumption as to the reason was based on a statement (likely speculation) made by the individual who was banned.
Though you're absolutely right, we have no idea why. Thanks for the correction.
who was banned and on which project was he working?
also why did never a new community driven chain start? as you've stated it was not ment to be an on-chain solution..
and now steem is not interesting anymore..?