Feminist groups want schools to be required to monitor social media

Peter Fricke
Investigative Reporter

Last week, 72 women's and civil rights groups requested that the DOE require schools to monitor social media to protect students from threatening and offensive comments.
Yik Yak and other anonymous apps, according to the groups, are an emerging Title IX issue.

A coalition of interest groups wants the U.S. Department of Education to require colleges to monitor social media and protect students from threatening and offensive comments.

The request was made last week by 72 women’s and civil rights groups, who claimed that harassment and threats on anonymous apps like Yik Yak are an emerging Title IX issue, according to Inside Higher Ed.

"...banning Yik Yak is tantamount to a content-based prohibition on speech.”    Tweet This

“Students on college campuses throughout the country have with increasing frequency used anonymous social media applications, such as Yik Yak, to target women students, students of color, and sexual minorities with harassment, threats, and other forms of intimidation with impunity,” the coalition said in a press release. “Earlier this year, students at the University of Mary Washington (UMW), for example, were threatened through Yik Yak with rape and murder after they spoke out against rape culture.”

The groups complain that the typical response to such incidents by university administrators has been “to disclaim responsibility for harassment and threats that occur on that platform” because the site is anonymous and accessible without using university servers.

In the UMW case, Feminists United on Campus (FUC) and Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF), both members of the coalition requesting federal intervention, filed a Title IX suit against the school, charging administrators with a “systemic failure to protect students from a sexually hostile school environment, from sex-based cyber assaults, and from threats of physical and sexual violence.”

University President Richard Hurley responded in June with a letter calling the allegations “irresponsible” and contending that the First Amendment prevents public institutions from taking the sort of actions the groups demanded.

“Although I understand that FUC may be upset that UMW has not ceded to its demands to ban Yik Yak from campus, it is important to understand that as a public university, UMW is obligated to comply with all federal laws—not just Title IX,” Hurley explained. “The First Amendment prohibits prior restraints on speech, and banning Yik Yak is tantamount to a content-based prohibition on speech.”

Despite Hurley’s reasoning, the groups announced in the press release last week that the DOE’s Office of Civil Rights has decided to investigate their complaint, though no timetable has yet been given for the process.

At the same time, they also want OCR to “issue clear guidance concerning anonymous social media,” including “information about what steps educational institutions must take to determine whether unlawful harassment is occurring on these platforms, without forcing victims themselves to police these platforms, and a clear path that educational institutions must follow to identify and prosecute anonymous harassers.”

Yet some experts say that not only would such a requirement raise First Amendment concerns, it would also be difficult, if not impossible, to implement.

“To require universities to police anonymous speech online sets them up for failure, even setting aside the First Amendment implications, which I think are substantial,” Will Creeley, vice president of legal and public advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), told Inside Higher Ed.

Creeley noted that the Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed the right to anonymous speech, adding that while the court allows exceptions for threatening and defamatory statements, “making that determination is beyond the competency of colleges.”

“Universities are in a very difficult place,” agreed technology and legal issues consultant Tracy Mitrano. “They are interested in being sure their campus is a safe place to women and minorities, but they are being asked to control things out of their control.

http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=6921/

liberals gone crazy... when will they learn they can't control everything?

I always believed one should go to work to do a job and go to school to learn

wouldn't bother me a bit if the CAMPUSES didn't provide any type of social networking sites on the internet

do that when you get home,,,,,,period

i don't disagree with that, not like most people have them at work either... isn't what school is about, to teach people to do a job?

something we agree on,,

FUC UMW...?
Really though, I see the schools point of not being responsible for PROVIDING the sites/content, but any time an actual threat is communicated 1 the school should be the first to act to protect the students safety THEN protect themselves legally from libel. Freedom of speech is not meant to protect people who threaten anyone and anonymity makes it even worse. Snapchat and apps that delete the poster or the message is how isil gets recruits without others knowing what's going on. Rapists are cowards to begin with but saying that it infringes on first amendment rights for them to hide behind a smartphone tablet w/e is PROTECTING THE RAPISTS. Come on, we don't need to monitor apps, sue the bastards who create these cyberrape havens and keep the cost of tuition down. To the punk ******* making the threats, grow a set be a man and make your threat out in the open so everyone can see how much of a biggoted douchebag you really are. See how long you remain a student and or athlete at your university and practice not dropping the soap.

Nothing on the internet is truly anonymous. Everything leaves a trail.
Everything.

A site can delete whatever content they want, it's still gonna be on the server.

Ban the students from such sites, on the grounds of safety and moral turpitude.

Well I guess the first issue is, how do the bullies know where to find your profile? Sure, I guess they could try a name search, but if your Facebook profile is 'Spaghetti Dragon', kinda hard to threaten you if I can't find you.

Only hand out your profile info to those you trust, and be clear they don't have your permission to hand it out, no matter how hot the guy or gal asking for it is.

As far as the whole Big Brother is watching thing, we're well past the Orwellian dystopia in regards to cyber stalking by security entities. There are a dozen alphabet agencies who already siphon your communications for the appropriate level of lawful discourse. Bring your threats to the local PD. Most have a cyber-crime unit now or can get access to tech resources to track the offenders down.

Of bigger concern are the tens of thousands of businesses who buy your traffic info so they can massage your buying habits, use you for demographic modeling, and essentially create a dossier on you to engage in all forms of subtle manipulation from social issue awareness, to voting patterns, to consumer purchases large and small. What banks, credit cards, and insurance companies to use, and which cars to drive are worth the bucks spent to influence those decisions.

The longer you spend on line every day, the more chances to try and influence you. Facebook is apparently one of the worst offenders having engaged in emotional manipulation of members by announcing policy or content changes to see how they would react. Facebook is also working to manipulate the speech of people, saying it will look to deny people the ability to post negative comments about Syrian refugees in countries like Germany.

So....some " 72 women's and civil rights groups" want to punish the whole for the actions of a few? Shocker...libs gonna lib. And its hilarious considering how these groups make up 95% of these 'issues' they want addressed.
And ban ADULTS from social media? Yea just frick the ol Constitution....who needs it anyway, these SJW aholes know whats best for ya.
Btw, how ya gonna ban an app? Sure, you can have em turn cell phones and tablets and whatnot off during class......but what about after class? In the dorm? At the local bar fown the street? At their off campus apartment.
Sure, YIK YAK has middle and high schools geo mapped and the app doesnt work on those properties...but these are college campuses..with supposed adults.....which sometimes sprawl throughout a town....not to mention that if the app WAS banned, some nerdy computer science major would find away around it anyway
As Rock mentioned, nothing is anonymous anymore....find out who is making the threats and deal with THEM...not the person who isnt being an ahole....and quit taking these SJW morons, who want community restrooms and who scream rape just because a guy smiles at them, seriously.

Humm they are at School Social Media should not be a option for them to use with the Schools Computers!

Block all Social Media Sites they are there to learn not to chit chat with friends...

Besides they all have Cell Phones tell them to use their minutes instead~~