Knowledge of surveillance creates self-censorship. Is this why Fluther has become an echo chamber?

Fluther has not aged well. As numbers of participants have dwindled, the range of opinions being expressed has contracted, with people who find the atmosphere stultifying quietly kicking Fluther’s dust off their sandals and departing to leave an increasingly orthodox clique who all share the same narrow range of beliefs. A new study out of Wayne State University shows that simply the knowledge of the existence of surveillance creates an echo chamber effect where people self-censor to avoid expressing a minority opinion.

Does this study provide an explanation for why the handful of people still squatting in Fluther willingly smother whatever handful of opinions contradict the reigning groupthink?