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By the looks of it freedom is directly connected to the owner(s) of Steemit. Look at the recovery accounts and it creates a trail. Linked to paladin, which also has 5 other alt accounts all with 0 voting power so bot accounts. They list Steem as the recover account which then lists steemitadmin as their recovery. Circle of friends it seems.
They are all mined accounts too it seems unsure of what that means. Our accounts are not mined accounts.

You could mine early days on here, though in ned or dans words "2. We have mined the vast majority of blocks thus far and we do not attempt to hide it" Source