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Video related to this article is available below.Issue date: 3/14/07 Section: News
Offensive posts inundate law school Web site
As message board gets continual criticism, student creator resigns
Paul Richards
A message board for law students has recently been gathering attention from a variety of sources for its creators' decision to keep sexist, racist and homophobic messages posted on the Web site.
And Penn Law student Anthony Ciolli, one of the directors of that Web site, AutoAdmit.com, wrote Monday night that he has resigned from the site.
Ciolli would not return requests for comment, though his resignation was confirmed by co-director Jarret Cohen, an insurance agent.
Cohen said that "people from all over have tried to threaten [Ciolli] with informing the bar of things they felt were unethical."
"He's lived in fear, running this Web site for a long time, and, honestly, I can understand that," Cohen added.
In his post, Ciolli cited "an incident of cyber harassment … by someone purporting to be a member of this [the site's] community" but did not elaborate further. "This incident crossed a line for me that simply should not have been crossed."
But Ciolli and Cohen may have crossed lines themselves.
The two kept links on the site that connect to contests featuring photographs of women - taken without their consent - from Web sites like Facebook and Myspace that invite users to rank the "hottest girls" in the country's top 14 law schools, for example.
Still, despite the offensive content, Penn officials say that the creators are within their legal rights.
"Every lawyer we've spoken to says … free speech issues [are] involved," Gary Clinton, dean of student affairs at Penn Law said. "People can say and do some pretty bothersome things, but those things are protected."
Cohen said that, in the past, highly offensive posters have been banned.
Meanwhile, several affected women have recently enlisted the help of ReputationDefender, an online reputation-protection firm.
Ross Chanin, co-founder of ReputationDefender, said his organization has represented women defamed on AutoAdmit for years.
And Penn Law student Anthony Ciolli, one of the directors of that Web site, AutoAdmit.com, wrote Monday night that he has resigned from the site.
Ciolli would not return requests for comment, though his resignation was confirmed by co-director Jarret Cohen, an insurance agent.
Cohen said that "people from all over have tried to threaten [Ciolli] with informing the bar of things they felt were unethical."
"He's lived in fear, running this Web site for a long time, and, honestly, I can understand that," Cohen added.
In his post, Ciolli cited "an incident of cyber harassment … by someone purporting to be a member of this [the site's] community" but did not elaborate further. "This incident crossed a line for me that simply should not have been crossed."
But Ciolli and Cohen may have crossed lines themselves.
The two kept links on the site that connect to contests featuring photographs of women - taken without their consent - from Web sites like Facebook and Myspace that invite users to rank the "hottest girls" in the country's top 14 law schools, for example.
Still, despite the offensive content, Penn officials say that the creators are within their legal rights.
"Every lawyer we've spoken to says … free speech issues [are] involved," Gary Clinton, dean of student affairs at Penn Law said. "People can say and do some pretty bothersome things, but those things are protected."
Cohen said that, in the past, highly offensive posters have been banned.
Meanwhile, several affected women have recently enlisted the help of ReputationDefender, an online reputation-protection firm.
Ross Chanin, co-founder of ReputationDefender, said his organization has represented women defamed on AutoAdmit for years.
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