Facebook uncensored

Pasa la American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) una noticia judicial americana sobre la libertad de expresión en la red. Los estudiantes podrán criticar a sus profesores en Facebook sin que ello pueda ser causa de actuaciones de la institución contra ellos. De actuaciones oficiales, claro. Supongo que en las no oficiales hay que prometérselas menos felices.

Should students be allowed to post comments about their teachers on Facebook? According to a recent federal court ruling out of South Florida, the answer is a resounding YES.

In a groundbreaking free speech case in the age of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, the ACLU of Florida received a favorable decision in a lawsuit filed in 2008 on behalf of high school student Katherine Evans against her former principal at Pembroke Pines Charter High School. In the ruling, issued earlier this week, United States Magistrate Judge Barry L. Garber denied Principal Bayer's Motion to Dismiss Katherine Evans' complaint, allowing the lawsuit to move forward.

Evans created a Facebook page from her home computer during her senior year titled 'Ms. Sarah Phelps is the worst teacher I've ever had.' After other students defended the teacher, Evans took the page down. The principal and teacher became aware of the page after the fact and suspended Evans for three days and also removed her from Advanced Placement classes as punishment for expressing her views about her teacher on Facebook.

The ACLU's lawsuit seeks injunctive relief, aiming to clear Evans' record. According to Matthew D. Bavaro, the ACLU cooperating attorney who represents Evans, "We are pleased that the court recognized that a student's off-campus, non-violent expression of her opinion about a teacher, posted on the Internet, is protected speech. If schools begin suspending every student who criticizes a teacher there will not be any students left to teach."

The issue of internet censorship has caused quite a stir lately thanks to the prevalence of social networking sites such as Facebook. The authority of school officials over students is a growing question, as the majority of students have access to computers and are involved in off-campus Internet speech. The ACLU continues to defend the right to free speech and an uncensored Internet, and maintains that school officials do not have the same authority to control what students say when they are off campus as when they are in school.

Otro artículo interesante sobre Facebook escribía Arcadi Espada en su blog el pasado catorce de febrero. Con asuntos de espionaje catorce de febrero.
También en el último (y primer) número de The Evolutionary Review, que acabo de recibir, aparecía un artículo sobre esta red: "Facebook or Lonesome No More", de Craig T. Palmer y otros.

Y entre las lecturas opcionales de mis alumnos de crítica les he incluido la tesis de Danah Boyd sobre redes sociales, Taken Out of Context - PDF aquí. Un tocho de PDF.

Aún no he llegado al extremo de imprimirme mi facebook, pero también sería voluminoso, visto todo lo que va a parar allí. De la segunda mitad de 2009 he imprimido hoy mi blog, y subía la cosa de 700 folios—sin censura oficial también.

El Nuevo Régimen de la escritura pública