The flagging system seems to be ill conceived. People are using flags incorrectly but there is no way to stop this happening. There is a mob rule type of mentality going on in some quarters as well as problems with individuals. I think this is really bad news for Steemit and I see people quickly abandoning the platform because of it. I think these problems are bigger than the problems of spam and plagiarism. Here is another post on the subject:

"Flag Wars: The Path to Victory"
https://steemit.com/steemit/@petermail/flag-wars-the-path-to-victory