[W]hom do we entrust with the power to allocate shame? I’d feel better about Jacquet’s recommendations were I convinced that such tactics would be aimed exclusively upward—at, say, the ninety corporations that are responsible for almost two thirds of fossil-fuel emissions, according to a 2013 study. Who is considered “upward” turns out to be quite flexible, however: to Justine Sacco’s gleeful shamers, she was a “media elite” who needed to be brought down. On the website Rate My Professor, students get to topple their professors—especially the women, who are routinely criticized for their wardrobes and personalities. In the faux populism of the Internet, any form of hierarchy is fair game, and any means are justified.

Laura Kipnis, “The Deep, Dark, Ugly Thing”

What appears to be relevant in the Reddit case is the notion that the company has exercised a kind of negligence towards the organic behavior emerging on the platform. While Reddit does not create the content or even promote the content, the failure to act makes continued use of the platform tantamount to a moral complicity in the emergent behavior of other users. Platforms, in short, are deemed morally responsible for the consequences, even unintentional, of the spaces they create online.

Tim Hwang, “The Future of Morality, at Every Internet User’s Fingertips”