Liberty University officials aren’t saying why the Lynchburg newspaper’s website was blocked from the school’s campus network.
The school blocked access to The News & Advance website for at least one day last week. Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. tells the newspaper that the school’s policies allow it to block a number of sites at will.
Why am I not surprised? Free speech, eh, how about apathy?
From the sound of it, this may have been one of those instances in which something on the site triggered a flag to block the site. That could have had immediate impact on, say, Main Campus but would not necessarily implement a block for Internet connections on Campus North (hence, Dean Staver knew nothing of it) or East Campus. The filters on campus have been notorious for being inconsistent between different segments of campus for some time, so it’s no surprise that some students and staff saw the block while others did not.
It would not have to be bona-fide content, either. Some advertising networks may trip a flag the way Liberty’s had their content filter set up in the past. I won’t die on this hill, as it easily could have been squelching content the university deemed inappropriate. Dare I say some anti-Liberty comments on a pro-Liberty news article?
No, the order for the block came straight from the administration. I submitted a ticket and got that response, and I also have friends on the inside that actually deploy the block who confirmed that. It was indeed blocked at Campus North (that is where I work).