I feel University of Missouri President Mun Choi’s pain.
I, too, use the block button on the social media platform Twitter.
Last week, Choi, who recently added “chancellor†of the university’s flagship Columbia campus to his title, for blocking students on Twitter who were critical of the university’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Like many universities across the country that opened up to in-person attendance this fall, the opening in Columbia hasn’t gone that well. There has been a spike of COVID-19 cases, not just on campus, but also in surrounding Boone County, which has shown more than a doubling of cases since students returned to campus.
The spike caused a new mask mandate for students, even when outdoors. Local health officials extended various restrictions, including shutting down some bars early. Amid the spike, some students turned to Twitter to criticize the job the university has done managing the pandemic.
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Soon, students who chose to criticize Choi found out they were being blocked on Twitter, even if they hadn’t tagged the president in their tweets. This didn’t go over well with the students, many of them studying at one of the most prominent journalism schools in the nation. National publication BuzzFeed noticed and wrote a story. An attorney from Austin, Texas, who is a 2005 graduate of MU noticed, too.
“It just seemed like a failure of leadership that bothered me as an alumnus of the school,†said Christopher Bennett. So he fired off a letter to Choi and the Board of Curators threatening a federal First Amendment lawsuit if Choi didn’t unblock the students who dared to criticize the president during a public health crisis.
“Not only is it immoral and repugnant for President Choi to block students and other persons on social media who are trying to raise awareness of campus safety issues in the middle of a global pandemic, it is also unlawful,†wrote Bennett, who offered to represent students for free. “As President Choi’s twitter account is a government forum, blocking people for their criticism of the university’s handling of a public health crisis constitutes viewpoint-based discrimination in violation of the First Amendment.â€
There have been numerous lawsuits related to elected officials blocking constituents on Twitter, including one in Boone County. Most famously, a federal appeals court ruled last year that President Donald Trump was violating the U.S. Constitution by on Twitter. The same arguments should apply to Choi’s use of what Bennett believes is in practice a government social media account, he said.
By the time I spoke to Bennett, his letter had served its purpose. Sometime Wednesday night or Thursday morning, Choi unblocked his student critics.
“President Choi decided to reverse his actions because the university does not need the distraction caused by this matter,†university spokesman Christian Basi told me in an email. “It is his hope that the tone of some of the conversations on social media can become more respectful.â€
Good luck with that. No doubt, some of the students chose some colorful language as they were criticizing the president. Any of us on social media who get criticized — and I do often — have to deal with offensive language and sometimes outright verbal abuse. It’s why I block some people on Twitter. But I’m not a public official who leads a university that should want its students engaged in the debates of the day.
Choi is, and this is the second time in two months that he’s faced a “distraction†caused by his own inability to deal with dissent. The first time was in July when Choi basically told faculty members who disagree with any of his decisions to keep their mouths shut or look for a new job. It was a remarkably tone-deaf moment for the leader of a major public university.
Such advice cuts both ways. If Choi is too sensitive to handle criticism from the young people he is charged with leading, and the faculty members who teach those students, perhaps he should consider a different line of work.