Young people have very often been on the forefront of standing up for justice, from Jim Crow, to Vietnam, to Palestine. And as they always have, they are being targeted because of their principles – but now, there are some new gotchas for the digital age we live in. We need to show them we have their backs in the face of new threats.
Sign the petition to Meta: Do not hand over students’ data in response to a political charade designed to intimidate students and chill their political expression.
In May, Interim Chancellor of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) Lee Roberts suspended students who participated in a nonviolent campus encampment to protest Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Student-organizers were compelled to hold an alternate graduation ceremony to celebrate the suspended students’ achievements. After that ceremony, a few participants painted and chalked on a UNC administrative building, protesting UNC’s investments in the Israeli government. The university power-washed the paint off the building without incident.1
A few days later, UNC’s police force sought a warrant to seize UNC Students for Justice in Palestine’s (SJP) Instagram data, allegedly to find and charge students in relation to the harmless protest. UNC SJP denies orchestrating any chalk or paint use on the building.2
Sign the petition to tell Meta: Protect user data. Do not comply with political intimidation by campus police.
Our social media platforms have become entirely too complicit in the state’s criminalization of marginalized and justice-seeking people. Big Tech must take a hard line against this unconstitutional over-reach.
We are not surprised that law enforcement continues to criminalize people using these tactics, but we are alarmed that the Chancellor of a public university would use these tactics against his students. The information that UNC’s police are attempting to seize from SJP’s Instagram account includes “name, address, phone number, credit card information, account creation information, IP address, direct messages, location data, device data and connection between the dates of May 2 and May 13.”3 This is egregious behavior in response to a victimless “crime” that was easily remedied with a power-wash. Meta must not comply with this overbroad request.
Petition text:
Dear Mark Zuckerberg,
We are demanding you take a stand and refuse to comply with UNC Police Department’s warrant trying to seize Instagram data from UNC Students for Justice in Palestine. Rather than seeking to keep its students safe in any of the myriad ways it could do so legitimately, UNC is attempting to weaponize a victimless event of protected political protest to intimidate students fighting to end the suffering and murder of thousands of family members, children, and others in Gaza. Meta holds the key to UNC’s attempt to intimidate and criminalize these students: Their data.
You must not comply with their warrant. Release a statement standing with the students and reaffirming the safety of data stored on Instagram. Crucially, you must offer end-to-end encryption for all your users and make it the default setting in all DMs.
We thank you for standing with us and using your considerable power and influence to stand against political intimidation using your tools.
Signed,
[Kairos Supporters: Your name here]
Sources:
- “UNC graduates shine despite campus protest, vandalism,” WRAL News, May 11, 2024.
- “Relentless in their commitment to genocide: UNC Police Obtain Search Warrant to Seize SJP Data”, UNC Students for Justice in Palestine, Jul. 12, 2024.
- “UNC Police want to search Instagram account to find out who damaged building during protest,” WRAL News, Jul, 12, 2024.
