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Questioning Facebook group shutdowns

Date 11/17/2005 12:00 AM | Topic: Letters to the Editor

I write this letter in response to the article from the Nov. 3 edition of Chips (Vol.128, No. 7) titled "Administration shuts down Facebook group." This act of censorship outraged me to no end. Just how far does the long arm of Luther think it can reach?

Don't get me wrong. Sans a few unsavory encounters with the high and mighty of the administration, my four-year stint at Luther has been rather pleasant. This letter is not meant as an attack.

I had always thought of the atmosphere at Luther as one of acceptance and encouragement and then I saw an article about a group of students who start a Facebook group - groups that nine out of 10 people don't really pay much attention to anyway - that are pressured into closing down their group in fear of "disciplinary action." I am curious to know what kind of disciplinary action would take place, as the internet is a resoundingly PUBLIC FORUM where anyone has the right to write something, a right that is very well protected by the First Amendment.

While I agree that this particular Facebook group could be found offensive, Bob Felde, et al. had no right to even bring this issue up to those who started it because, by law, those students had every right to write what they wrote. If anyone should have talked to these students, it should have been those offended by the group.

Being a devotee of Facebook myself, I happen to know there is a small penis support group on Facebook. Will the phallically challenged rise up and demand that this group be shut down, too? Where does it stop? Will the Burn Main Down group be suddenly disbanded for fear of terrorist association?

What bothers me the most about this situation is that there are bigger problems than this in the great land of Luther and those who can do something about it are directing their time and energy to face something over which they have no legal or moral authority. I encourage the students who read this to know their rights as members of society so if something like this happens again they aren't cowed into submission by the seemingly all-powerful higher-ups in life. Don't let them push you around. Stand up for yourself and be heard.


Respectfully,

Drew Bahlmann ('05)

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