Frankly, you can't have it both ways. Social networks are pressed to take more accountability for the activities of bad apples, and their first line of defense

Frankly, you can't have it both ways. Social networks are pressed to take more accountability for the activities of bad apples, and their first line of defense is to automate and monitor. The algorithms that do so are going to be complex and involve insight that I don't believe has much research behind it. So this is fairly cutting edge and worthwhile. On the other hand, understanding how mainstream student and academia may react to a lightening-rod topic like rape is not the strong suit of a lot of computer scientists. The professor needed to clearly communicate why this was a worthwhile assignment. I'd bet he'd have gotten a completely different response.