Hacker News Reader

I think the ban hits the right institution, but I'd reason the other way around: is it really the primary fault of the individual (arguably somewhat immature, considering the tone of the email) PhD Student? The problem in academia is not "bad apples", but problematic organizational culture and misaligned incentives.

View on HN

To me it depends on whether they lied to the ethics board or not. If they truly framed their research as "sending emails" then the individual is 100% at fault. If they clearly defined what they were trying to do and no one raised an issue then it is absolutely the university's fault.

I think it's more than whether they lied, it's whether the ethics board is even plausibly equipped to fully understand the ramifications of what they proposed to do: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26890490

Well if the ethics board is not decently equipped to understand the concerns with this type of research I would say a full ban is perfectly understandable.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com