The octothorp (easily recognized as #) is the symbol used in censorship. Has been for ages.
Sure, some modern online chatter now uses asterisks, but that’s only because they became the symbol for hiding passwords and in the eternal September people forgot about octothorp. But censorship is not hiding passwords, it’s saying “sh#t” instead of the proper word for fear of legal repercussions. Even markdown formatting is incompatible with the imposter that is the asterisk because it recognizes the true censorship history of the thorp.