Is it legal for website forums to censor and punish language such as calling liars forked-tongueS?

[onyeajuju]

I belong to a web forum where we discuss political issues affecting our ethnic group. Lately, the moderators have taken to censorship, choosing which words are acceptable and the ones that are not. For instance, I described some members of the forum as forked-tongues for lying in private about a matter we were discussing and writing the opposite on the forum. I also called members of a community terrorists for beheading a member of my community over a land dispute. For these, I was suspended from the forum for three months. Apparently, we could not use those words to describe anyone or community, even when the acts that warranted the description occurred.
Do the moderators have any legal rights to censor and suspend anyone? Do I have any legal recourse with Yahoo, the provider of the free online web forums?

Thanks,
Onyeajuju

[sharone]

A forum is owned by people much as a house is owned by people. You were offensive in their 'house' and were kicked out temporarily. In this day and age it's really dumb to use the word terror**** because of all the search engine software looking for terms such as that. I don't think it was appropriate to take whatever off-board relationship you had with someone and then call them out for saying the opposite 'on board'.

[vfielder]

Yes the moderators have the right to ban someone for name calling and causing a hostile environment in the discussion. You have no legal recourse with yahoo. Just find another discussion forum and stop the name calling.