I predicted (and expected) this.
I did not expect this.
As some of you might have heard, one of the Alliance leaders speaking at the Alliance Panel during EVE Fanfest 2012 breached our EULA/TOS with some ill-advised remarks about a fellow EVE player. It goes without saying that CCP deeply regrets this incident and will work towards reducing any possibility of this happening again in the future.CCP requested that all panel PowerPoint presentations and discussion topics be handed in beforehand for approval. Regrettably, the offending comments were made during an unscripted Q&A session after the main presentations.Following a thorough internal review CCP has decided to respond to this clear violation of our Terms of Service and wholly inappropriate use of the Alliance Panel. According to our existing policies, we have issued a 30 day ban from EVE Online to the panel speaker.The policy of CCP is not to publicly discuss warnings and bans on an individual basis. This situation is entirely unique because the panel was displayed via CCP’s Fanfest video stream component, a platform analogous to our forums. As a result we have published this statement due to the special circumstances involved. However, our policy remains that we will not publicly discuss warnings and bans.
The panelist has subsequently posted a public apology as well as a private apology to the victim of his attack. He has also resigned from his position as Chairman of CSM 6 and has forfeited his right to serve on CSM 7. As per our policies, this candidate may be eligible to run at a later date subject to candidacy review.
The Council of Stellar Management is a democratically elected council that represents the players of EVE Online. Although council members may represent the players in any manner they choose, being a council member does not permit actions or playstyles that violate our policies.
Serpentine's Eve 
I have to admit that forfeit term caught me out by surprise as well. In many respects what the Mittens did is repeated daily in EVE through killboards, forum posts, local chat etc – which is the nasty derision of other players. I have often thought of it as a form of physiological warfare – and it can be rewarded by the target doing stupid things and losing even more ISK. The difference here is that politics is involved… and instead of the incident being ignored (like the vast majority of them are), it is held up high and focused on. Tomorrow the same behaviour will occur in game, it will just be that the Mitten’s won’t directly be on the CSM any more. There is a levle of dishonesty in this whole process which I don’t like.
I think embarrassing CCP in public might have been the tipping point.
I think CCP has realised that they’ve tied the Eve brand to Mittens a biit too tightly and it has bit them in the behind, so they’re taking steps.
I was surprised at the wielding of the ban hammer though. It would have been a fine call as far as CCP goes I would have thought, as I can’t imagine the Goons all manage to plex each months play and that number of players would have a certain financial heft. But then again…
Perhaps certain external factors/stakeholders may also have had some input to the decision making.