UNH Institutes Anti-Free Speech 'Social Media Policy' - Granite Grok

UNH Institutes Anti-Free Speech ‘Social Media Policy’

UNH CampusThe Univerity of New Hampshire has added a Social Media Policy to its Student’s Rights, Rules, and Responsibility code of conduct. It’s a Big Brother chill-blanket on free speech that allows anyone to report anyone else whenever they think their feelings have been hurt or the feelings of others might be hurt.

What could go wrong?

“The University recognizes that social media behavior is entitled to extensive protections under the First Amendment. The University guarantees and protects the speech rights of students. This policy will be interpreted with those protections in mind,” it states.

What an absurd thing to say. You can’t possibly approach complaints based on this policy with the first amendment protections in mind. The first amendment provides broad protections, confirmed again and again the courts all the way to the Supremes, for the very things the policy was written to stop.

What your snowflakes call cultural appropriation is protected speech. What you call hate speech is protected speech. Almost anything short of that which would break some other pre-existing law is protected. Even your supposition about language that could incite criminal behavior or violence is nothing short of begging a student to lawyer up and sue the crap out of you.

State Sen. Dan Innis, who is also a professor and Chair of the Faculty Senate (and with whom I’m sure I  have more than a few policy disagreements), is on the same page when it comes to free speech at UNH.

“I’m opposed to a social media policy. I’m not opposed to social media suggestions, but I am opposed to a social media policy. It’s overregulation,” Innis told the campus newspaper in October 2017. “It’s not enforceable, and secondly, we have no business in that area. To me, it’s speech, and it’s protected by the First Amendment.”

It is not enforceable, and UNH has no business in this area. So why do it? To intimidate open discussion and to silence speech.

It. Has. No. Other. Purpose.

But the Presidential Task Force on Campus Climate, ordered by previous UNH President Mark Huddleston (for those keepign score at home the New Pres. is  James W. Dean Jr) says this is what the students want.

Right.

Or is that what you made sure they thought they wanted because they are afraid of speaking out on a campus that would deliberately suppress speech?

H/T The College Fix

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