Editorial: UC shouldn’t use Facebook to implicate students

Amid a national climate in which the curbing of personal privacy
is becoming frighteningly easy, University of California campuses
might be starting to cross a few lines of their own.

Last week, officials from UC Santa Barbara told the
school’s newspaper, the Daily Nexus, that students could be
punished for pictures posted on Facebook that show them violating
school policy ““ specifically citing drinking in on-campus
housing.

While Santa Barbara students have been warned about posting
incriminating pictures on their doors or walls, they have not been
officially warned about Facebook, nor is there an official policy
in place governing it or similar Web sites, a housing official told
the paper.

UCLA does not have an official policy in place either, but it
seems to be keeping its options open as to whether students can be
punished for posting such content online.

With all the ambiguity surrounding this relatively new issue,
one thing seems clear: If universities are using information on
Facebook to incriminate students, a line has certainly been
crossed.

The obvious criticism is that no one really knows for sure what
is factual on a person’s Facebook profile. For example,
someone could stage a photo of drinking in a dorm room, or could
have written “smoking marijuana on campus” under
“hobbies” as a joke.

Furthermore, there’s no way to verify who even made the
profile ““ all one needs to make a Facebook profile is an
e-mail address that ends in “.edu” ““ so
it’s conceivable that an individual could be incriminated by
another person who created his or her profile.

Even beyond the logical shortfalls of university administrators
using online Web sites as a policing tool, it’s scary to
think the university could come to terms with these practices on an
ethical level.

College is supposed to be a time of new responsibility, of
following the rules on your own and being accountable for your
actions. It’s absolutely acceptable for UCLA Housing to make
sure students have a good environment for that growth by making
sure their living situation is safe and that they aren’t
breaking any laws.

But it’s hard to think that students won’t get
flashbacks of their mom going through their sock drawer if the
university is looking for violations on a forum that, though
technically public, is meant for students to interact with one
another.

Many lawyers also say that materials posted online are in the
public domain and are fair game to be used as evidence. That was
illustrated last year in the trial for three high school students
accused of raping a UCLA student. (The three were acquitted of the
rape charges.) During the course of the trial, defense lawyers used
the accuser’s weblog as evidence.

Being punished for drinking in the dorms because a Resident
Assistant saw a picture online is not nearly as serious as the rape
case. But the precedent being set is important.

Thankfully, UCLA hasn’t said it’s going to be
implementing practices similar to UCSB’s administration.

But it sure makes you think about your Facebook profile in ways
you shouldn’t have to.