A few reasons why there's so much anger, in my estimation:

- When you support a project, you want its leaders to embody decent values.

- You have always projected an image of someone who's "nice" and doing things right. You cannot bully your intern in private and keep that image.

- Most importantly, you are now in the Goliath position and you are acting tyrannically. It's hard to side with someone going "I have raised $20M and I will use it to crush you" to their previous intern. The fact that you did not explain your concerns, jumped straight to legal threats, and did not want to talk after the project was taken down looks quite bad. If you had approached it in a more diplomatic fashion, you would not be public enemy #1 on HN.

Understand the position you're in. You wield a big stick; speak softly.

P.S. it's perfectly understandable that you'd have concerns about the project, though IMHO it's an overreaction. That's not the issue. The issue is _how_ you approached it.