Ethics court fines Former Justice Eakin $50K for lewd emails; Associated Press via abc27.com, 3/24/16

Mark Scolforo, Associated Press via abc27.com; Ethics court fines Former Justice Eakin $50K for lewd emails:

"Pennsylvania’s judicial ethics court is fining a former state Supreme Court justice $50,000 a week after he resigned for his role in a sweeping scandal over lewd and objectionable emails exchanged in the state’s law enforcement circles.

The court said Thursday that former Justice Michael Eakin jeopardized the judiciary’s reputation by trading emails containing “imagery of sexism, racism, and bigotry.”...

The court notes Eakin’s behavior wasn’t criminal and the punishment would have been more severe if he hadn’t resigned and accepted responsibility."

Not all comments are created equal: the case for ending online comments; Guardian, 9/10/15

Jessica Valenti, Guardian; Not all comments are created equal: the case for ending online comments:

"Comments sections also give the impression that all thoughts are created equal when, well, they’re not. When Popular Science stopped publishing comments, for example, it was because “everything, from evolution to the origins of climate change, is mistakenly up for grabs again...scientific certainty is just another thing for two people to ‘debate’”. When will we see the humanity and dignity of women as a fact, rather than an opinion?

It’s true, I could just stop reading comments. But I shouldn’t have to. Ignoring hateful things doesn’t make them go away, and telling women to simply avoid comments is just another way of saying we’re too lazy or overwhelmed to fix the real problem.

Websites and news sources are increasingly moving forward without comments because they find them unnecessary and counterproductive. In my perfect world, more places would follow their lead – at least until publishers find lasting solutions to making comments worth it. Worth it for readers and for writers. Because the nastiness on our doorstep has piled too high for too long, and I just want to get out of the house."

Web Trolls Winning as Incivility Increases; New York Times, 8/14/14

Farhad Manjoo, New York Times; Web Trolls Winning as Incivility Increases:

"But Dr. Phillips, of Humboldt State, pointed out that many efforts to curb trolling ran into a larger problem: “To what extent do you want to make it harder for people to express themselves on the Internet?” she asked.

“This is not the good-faith exchange of ideas,” she said. “It’s just people being nasty, and if anything, it might encourage marginalized groups to not speak up.” She added, “On the other hand, by silencing that valve, there’s a lot of other stuff that is important culturally that might also be minimized.”

If there’s one thing the history of the Internet has taught us, it’s that trolls will be difficult to contain because they really reflect base human society in all its ugliness. Trolls find a way.

“It’s not a question of whether or not we’re winning the war on trolling, but whether we’re winning the war on misogyny, or racism, and ableism and all this other stuff,” Dr. Phillips said. “Trolling is just a symptom of those bigger problems.”"