I am new here, but I guess your friend could 'silence' the guy or not?! 
 So that he no longer sees your friends posts so it can not flag it also ;)

I think a reason should need to be given to downvote and then there needs to be a way to dispute a downvote. That doesn't mean that a ton of downvote will be disputed. If they are legitimate then there is really no point to challenge it. If someone is a serial abuser of the feature I think it is up to the community to destroy their reputation so they can't really do any damage.

Oye buen contenido, pero también hay que tener en cuenta que; muchos dan mas importancia al plagio y enseguida lanzan el voto negativo, pero estan menos pendientes del contenido propio y estos que deberían de apoyar no dan un voto positivo, la idea de plantear una comunidad es que se apoyen y no que existan disputas, creo que la situación que vive steemit actualmente es por causa de los abusos constantes que ha recibido de las ballenas en contra de la minoría y recuerda que la minoría es una gran multitud de peces en el mar con el poder de sobre cargar dicha plataforma, esto va basado en los masivos ataques DDOS a los servidores centrales de Steemit que aunque se este corrigiendo esta presentando considerables fallas. 

a couple of my friends got flagged by him

There are two things at play here IMHO, two which need solving:

1. **Comment spam**. While comment spam on Steem little is, it does exist. And I'm mostly looking at those bot comments, no matter whether low value or requested bots. Too much of the average Steem comment section is taken up by bots using the comments as a billboard. And then, of course, there's the odd spam comment.
2. **Flagging**. I like to think that Medium has a reason only to have Likes, _claps_ now. On a platform like Steemit, a second element comes in play her of course... and that is money. My question, when considering the flagging issue and whether to keep the option is a simple one: should we be both judge and executioner in a democratic system?

I think the flagging functionality needs to be overhauled and most definitely the suggestion that one could downvote a post simply for not agreeing with the rewards. With it taking 7 days for payout nowadays, there is no reason why the flag couldn't be replaced by a **Report this post** feature and dealt with in a similar, but more transparent way, than @steemcleaners.

Yea to be flagged without reasons is disgusting. But i could not think of a suitable solution to solve this effectively. With steemit hugging the total freedom theme which no censorship is allowrd, its very not feasible to setup rules for people to follow in voting or flagging. 

Or maybe the vote weight should not merely depends on the SP? Reputation should play a part too. So that a user with lower reputation could casts lower vote weight.

Electronic-terrorism, voice to skull and neuro monitoring on Hive and Steem. You can ignore this, but your going to wish you didnt soon. This is happening whether you believe it or not. https://ecency.com/fyrstikken/@fairandbalanced/i-am-the-only-motherfucker-on-the-internet-pointing-to-a-direct-source-for-voice-to-skull-electronic-terrorism

I thought flagging someone's content or post had to meet certain steemit guidleines. Am I wrong with that line of thinking?

Basically what I am getting from your post is that people can go about his or her way and _willy-nilly_ flag posts without having a good reason?
If that's the case then I think some sort of guidelines need to be implemented and the _flagger_ needs to clarify the reason for the flag.

This post is very good and gives me interesting information, I've felt the same thing as you tell above.And I was given the flag without a reason, all the time I commented to the account that has given me the flag but he never replied to my comment to give me a reason ... this happened about 2 months ago ..And look at the photo below that I have documented when I was given a flag for no apparent reason..! Thank you @rok-sivante
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https://img.esteem.ws/kmq5x5f9s6.jpg
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@rok-sivante, I am agree with you.  misuse of the flag feature if it is governed by fair and wise legal regulation, then it will not be disadvantage of this platform users. but on the contrary, the using flag feature without the obvious reason is too barbarous and inhuman

I try my best not to call anyone out I found one account that has some crazy account wallet activity and made a post about it hoping someone could teach me how to trade like this account does and only hope that I don't get flagged or attacked back by the user for trying to disclose or discover their technique. I don't know anything about making or using bots or much about computer code so I just wanted help but no one has really helped much the article is here https://steemit.com/discussion/@isteemithard/steemians-please-help-explain-this-wallet-to-me-happychau123-discussion

I hope the system is upgraded, when my account was flagged I stopped using it I'm only recently back on. Don't know how much longer I'll stay though. Great post.

Something *should* be done to check inappropriate flagging of posts, else we could see non-admissible reasons like racial or relugious bigotry coming into play.
Perhaps if no flag is actually recorded until a reason is given and that reason confirmed, it would go a long way to help.

@myrockandocean I didn't know you got flagged say. Aku barusan ngobrol ttg tuh orang Di discord. I will let you know Di Instagram yah

@rok-sivante I just brought that issue up on discord just yesterday. I didn't know @myrockandocean got flagged, she's my friend too, she hasn't mentioned that. I would have mention her name on discussion if only I knew!

I was flagged once, it really chapped my butt. I looked the person up on Steemd.com and looks like that's all they do. Just goes to show, there are trolls anywhere you go. I let it ride and continued to Steem on. Thankfully they haven't been back.

I think there should have a proper rule for downvote option.
When someone press the downvote, there might appear some question to him as why he downvoting that post and then that downvote should be checked by the authorise and then if it is valid then the downvote will be applied.
If there has no such thing or such check option for downvote,then there has so many evil people who will abuse it, like that person do.