Socialist pretended to be held back before publication (8)
I believe the answer is:
redacted
'be held back before publication' is the definition.
(to redact is to remove before publication)
'socialist pretended' is the wordplay.
'socialist' becomes 'red' (socialism is often associated with the colour red).
'pretended' becomes 'acted' (I've seen this before).
'red'+'acted'='REDACTED'
'to' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for redacted that I've seen before include "censored" , "Obscured part of a text for legal or security reasons" , "Edited for publication" , "Like some scripts" .)