I think it's appropriate for them to strive to be a neutral third party. Having the keeper of "public" information like this also striving for specific political goals could call into question their handling (or filtering) of the data in order to achieve those goals.
We're much better off with a neutral keeper of the data that activist groups can point to when arguing a point.
I'm not suggesting that they need to take a specific political position, but as bdamm suggested elsewhere in the thread, "This release reads like the board has been taken over by RIAA.". Phrases like "the DMCA and its mechanisms have become a vital (if controversial) component of the content ecosystem" are deeply disappointing to see from Chilling Effects.
We're much better off with a neutral keeper of the data that activist groups can point to when arguing a point.