From my perspective, the problem isn't that they ran an experiment, the problem is that they lied to site owners, making them think they needed to deal with a t

From my perspective, the problem isn't that they ran an experiment, the problem is that they lied to site owners, making them think they needed to deal with a tricky legal request. In many cases, the sites reached out to lawyers in answering those requests, which is pretty expensive. The experiment aspect is only a problem in as much as it being an experiment caused the researchers to do something they wouldn't normally have done, or been okay doing.