Yes, the acts in question can easily be denoted by the terms "blackmail" and "censorship." And your final sentence is certainly true as well.

To avoid being called a cult, to avoid being a cult, and to avoid doing bad things generally, we should stop the definition debate and focus on whether people's behavior has been appropriate. If connotation conundrums keep you quarreling about terms, pick variables (e.g. "what EY did"=E and "what WFG precommitted to doing, and in fact did"=G) and keep talking.