Any Google<->NSA articles seem to get penalized, either automatically based on keyword or some other means. Watch the front page, this link will fairly predictably be pushed down within half an hour.

Note this has nothing to do with score or number of comments (controversiality), its some entirely separate thing. When https://i.imgur.com/yAGJWNT.png was taken, the link should have been around position 5, but you can already see it's being pushed down somehow