the presumption is that it is the same piece, without seeing more than page 1 of the earlier one it is not possible to say what was changed entirely. for all we know the timestamp may have been accidentally left unchanged when revised.
the removal of the nytimes para is hardly censorship. the piece is editorial, presenting a viewpoint on the current elections. the remaining substance and direction of the piece seems unchanged, save for a small part that, for all we know, was refused publication by the nytimes and the bbc were forced to subsequently remove.
as the timestamp has now been changed (certainly the version i have seen does) there is certainly now no attempt to misdirect.
i am not sure how changing their own editorial could be described censorship.