We all love parody Twitter accounts and a time when college administrations have started utilizing social media as strategic tools, many “fake” accounts under the names of real university officials are popping up all over the web.
But one university in Kentucky is taking a stance against parody and criticism of school officials and policies through social media. At Western Kentucky University, president Gary Ransdell, and officials persuaded Twitter to briefly shut down a parody account in a lecture to students about social networking etiquette. Hanni Fakhoury, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil-liberties group based in San Francisco, sees it as an attempt by WKU to immerse itself into social media. “If you don’t know whether what you’re going to say is going to get you in trouble, you’re better off just not saying it and not getting in trouble,” he said. “And there you have it right there, speech is chilled.” The school has not yet drafted any language for the handbook or set possible punishments for violators, WKU spokesman Bob Skipper said.
Still, critics say it’s a means of censorship. The campus newspaper recently wrote an article under the headline “WKU trying to pull strings on social media.” As for the parody account, the anonymous user recently tweeted, “Campus police department has been renamed to twitter patrol.” Student criticism prompted an official response that appeared recently in the campus newspaper. Stacey Biggs, WKU’s chief marketing officer, wrote that the intent is not to censor students but said the university “has to offer some amount of protection to its students.” School officials have searched for fake accounts filled with inflammatory comments, though Biggs said the school tries to have accounts taken down only if they use the university’s name or logo and don’t clearly state that they are parodies.
At WKU, Ransdell weighed in on social networking in a Feb. 15 message on Facebook. “We, at WKU, have become particularly conscious lately of some who are misusing social media and using some poor judgment,” Ransdell wrote. “So my message here is `Be smart.’ Use social media thoughtfully; always remember what you send is permanent and can be viewed years from now. Employers do their homework. They can and will track ways in which prospective employees have used social media. We, at WKU, track such things as well.”
What do you think, collegiettes? Do you think this kind of policy is preventive of cyber-bullying or is it just a means censorship? Sound off in the comments below!