Social media policies differ for student-athletes based on the individual university. Some schools, including Boise State and New Mexico State have barred use of certain social media all-together during season. Other universities, (including Mizzou football) employ private third party resources such as Varsity Monitor, Centrixsocial and UDiligence with the sole purpose of monitoring the content of student-athlete social media. These companies have developed a program which searches for a list of words and phrases that could potentially be “red flags.” The list of “red flag” words is unique for each program and might contain content regarding alcohol and drug use, names of a rival school’s top athletes, and even content consistent with NCAA violations. In a less invasive approach, schools such as the University of Michigan require student-athletes to sign an agreement regarding their social media accounts and provide athletes with guidelines for social media usage.
Historically, student-athletes have been negatively implicated due to content released through social media outlets. Western Kentucky running back Antonio Andrews was suspended after tweeting a comment critical of the school’s fans. Lehigh University wide receiver Ryan Spadola was suspended for retweeting a racially charged message. Possibly the most notorious incident comes from the case of Yuri Wright, a star high school football player. Wright lost a full scholarship offer to Michigan as the result of a sexually explicit tweet and was also expelled from his private high school.
Under the First Amendment, administration and coaches at private universities are legally allowed to impose restrictions on social media usage. However, public universities are federally funded and therefore fall into a different category of restriction in terms of free speech. Howard Wasserman, a law professor and sports law expert at Florida International University likened student-athletes to employees of the university, “These athletes are playing on behalf of the university, and they are something akin to employees and there’s less First Amendment protection for employee speech, particularly speech in the course of their job.” The issue at hand is how far is too far and who has the jurisdiction to impose these boundaries. In another opinion, Ken Paulson, president of the First Amendment Center commented that banning social media use all together to be completely unreasonable, “We simply need to make sure that student athletes are given the latitude they deserve as students, and that any restrictions on their communications be rational.” As the issue grows, so too does the controversy and the frequency with which these issues will arise.
“This is going to be the new drug-testing,” UDiligence CEO Kevin Long stated in a public email with a client. “It will be as common as being asked to take a drug test in the next two years or less.”
“This is going to be the new drug-testing,” UDiligence CEO Kevin Long stated in a public email with a client. “It will be as common as being asked to take a drug test in the next two years or less.”
Student-athletes and their right to free expression via social media is a topic that I find incredibly interesting and controversial. Before now, I had never really thought about or heard of this issue, and I find myself understanding both sides of the argument. On one hand, being a student-athlete is like signing a contract with your school and saying that you will be a leader and an image for that institution. On the other hand, however, it’s alarming to think that a school can have so much power and influence over a student-athlete’s life –especially in such personal aspects as their social media accounts. This topic reminds me of our discussions on private vs. public figures and on how celebrities are held to a different standard than private persons, which I feel is a similar situation for student-athletes. Educational establishments obviously want to put their ‘best face forward’, so to speak, and thus clearly would want to control the image of their students –particularly the ones that everyone is watching, like student-athletes. However, it’s unfortunate that private institutions are allowed to exercise this power so intensely to the extent that athletes like Yuri Wright get expelled from their schools. Personally, I found his tweets slightly comical and ridiculous.
ReplyDelete