Table of Contents
Student-Athletes May Face Increased Online Community Restrictions
Athletic directors and coaches are the latest group to express concern with online communities like Facebook.com and MySpace.com. At the end of June, Laing Kennedy, the Athletic Director at Kent State University, announced that student athletes must remove their Facebook profiles by August 1. A recent article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which discusses this trend, that 鈥淜ennedy, who received harsh criticism, quickly backed off his ban and said last week he now restricts and monitors athletes鈥 use of the site.鈥
The monitoring and restriction of student-athletes鈥 profiles is more complicated than the same actions involving non-athletes. ADs and coaches seem most concerned about the images of the school, the athletic department, and the teams that these profiles can portray. The Columbus Dispatch that when discussing his proposed ban on student-athlete Facebook profiles, Kennedy said, 鈥淪tudent-athletes are representative of the university鈥nd anything embarrassing on a student鈥檚 profile can be embarrassing for the university as well.鈥
As FIREPresident Greg Lukianoff states in the Journal-Constitution article:
We have always recognized that students can give up certain rights to play athletics in college鈥 They are representatives of the college. So we do recognize that universities have increased power to place limitations on students who are athletes.摆鈥Do you have to give up all your expressive rights to be on the sports team? By monitoring or censoring these sites, [college athletic programs] seem to be ignoring that these are both athletes and students.
Instead of banning these online communities, ADs and coaches should educate student-athletes on the consequences of their choices.
Recent Articles
FIRE鈥檚 award-winning Newsdesk covers the free speech news you need to stay informed.
Five scary threats to free speech
Election season and Halloween conjure up frightening threats to free expression. Here are five that FIREis monitoring this year.
Let the uninhibited debate begin! 鈥 Lukianoff v. Franks? 鈥 First Amendment News 445
George Washington Law professor Mary Anne Franks is ready to take on some noted First Amendment advocates, including 果冻传媒app官方鈥檚 own CEO Greg Lukianoff.
The First Amendment protects your right to trick or treat
Don鈥檛 be a free speech ogre on Halloween. Dressing up in costumes and asking for candy are constitutionally protected forms of free expression.
Minnesota state agency must drop investigation of employee鈥檚 Facebook post
Political pressure is mounting on the Minnesota Department of Resources to fire Tyler Janke for his post about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump in July.