By censoring Luigi, they are bringing more awareness to the fact they are afraid of Luigi. The Verge already published an article about the changes, thus bringing more attention to it. Lol.
And it's not like this is the only Luigi in the world. I'm not about to promote a pizza place called Luigi's because neither am I on reddit nor do I know such a place but if it wasn't for these two reasons, there would still be a third one
theyre a private company, they have no obligation to keep things uncensored. meta censors pro Palestine and queer content all the time. free speech does not apply to nonpublic forums.
I saw a some magazine in the checkout at a grocery store that had Luigi on the cover. They're absolutely trying to paint him as a bad guy. The cover was "The dark decent of Luigi". I laughed and turned the magazine around. But it's out there in every checkout line.
Nobody buys those things except (usually eccentric) elderly ladies. You could have defaced the mag and more store attendants wouldn't even notice or intentionally let it ride.