Joshua
Smith , staff writer
posted
on Feb. 9, 2006
People
are “Facebooking” you, and it’s not who you might
think: The Troy University Police Department.
“Lately, because of issues [on Facebook], we’ve been
monitoring it more closely,” Troy University Chief of Police
Rod Anderson said.
According to Anderson, officers familiar with Facebook are using
their e-mail address to gain access to Facebook to monitor possible
harassment and intimidation by students.
Dean of Student Services Herbert Reeves said he was unaware of this
monitoring program.
“As far as going out on Facebook every day to see if there’s
stuff on there that’s inappropriate,” Reeves said.
“I’m unaware that [the police department] is doing that.
It’s news to me.” According to Facebook spokesperson
Chris Hughes, this activity is being taken without their consultation
and that they have not cooperated with any other school in any similar
effort.
In a Facebook search of people who work at “university police
department,” two names were found on the Troy server: Larry
Thomas, who lists himself as a 2005 alumnus of Troy and Dale England,
who has locked out his profile to people who are not on his friends
list.
Reeves said that he was aware of three instances where students
or faculty reported harassment via Facebook.
Anderson confirmed one of these.
According to Anderson, a male student threatened another male student
via Facebook by posting a picture of himself holding a gun.
Threatening comments accompanied this picture made to the second
male student.
Anderson said the threats were part of an investigation into illegal
drugs on campus.
The student who was threatened reported the harassment to university
police.
Reeves said that the university administration is not taking an
active role in monitoring Facebook activity.
In response to the activity taken by the university police department,
Facebook spokesperson Chris Hughes said, “If users do not
want police to be able to see their profile information, they should
go to the ‘My Privacy’ section and change their settings.
“[Users] can make it so that only students can see the info
or even so that only friends can. Users have complete control over
who can see what,” he added.
Hughes said that monitoring of Facebook raises legal issues.
“Any law enforcement attempt to gather information from Facebook
must follow proper legal procedure, and any evidence gathered illegally
is unlikely to be admissible in court,” Hughes said.
Joseph Colquitt, a professor of law at the University of Alabama
and a retired circuit court judge in the state of Alabama said,
“This is a very complicated legal matter.”
Colquitt continued, “Quite frankly, I would want to hear a
lot of arguments from both sides before making any kind of decision
on a matter such as this.”
“It would depend on how the information was gathered, how
that information was used, how it was posted, etc,” Colquitt
said.
The center of the legal question is the Fourth Amendment’s
implied right to privacy.
“It would be difficult to argue that there is an invasion
of privacy if the information is public,” said Colquitt.
“I believe that anything on the Internet is a public forum,”
said Sam Shelton, an assistant professor of political science at
Troy University who teaches a course on constitutional law.
“I’d compare Facebook to a gated community,” he
said.
“Only those in the community can be let in. However, I have
no control over who is let in or what they do when they’re
let in,” Shelton said.
Shelton said he believed that the actions taken by the university
police department were possibly inappropriate.
However, the question is not cut and dried.
“If there’s information out there and the government
sees it, even if they’re not supposed to, are they just supposed
to advert their eyes?” Shelton said.
While there have been no cases in the legal system to determine
Facebook’s status as a public or private forum, Shelton said
it would be an interesting case to watch.
“If all you had were some illicit activity gained by law enforcement
via Facebook, I’m not sure that would be enough for a warrant,”
Shelton said, under the need to show probable cause.
However, Shelton also noted that every judge defines probable cause
differently, so there’s no easy way to say whether information
on Facebook would be enough for a judge to issue a warrant.
Chief Anderson said believes that Facebook is not doing enough to
ensure that inappropriate material is kept off the network.
“The company is responsible for monitoring their own information
and making sure that students aren’t putting the wrong stuff
out there,” Anderson said.
“Someone has to step up [and monitor Facebook],” he
said.
When asked if their current reporting system was sufficient enough
in making sure that no threatening or harassing activity ocurrs
on Facebook, Chris Hughes said, “Absolutely. We have ‘Report
this user’ and ‘Report this group’ links on every
profile and group page.”
Hughes continued, “As soon as someone takes offense to content
posted we take a look at the content and if it is objectionable,
remove it and warn the user.”
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