CAF has warned that sweeping social-media policies at Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University expose a widening gap between England’s new campus free-speech regime and Northern Ireland’s looser protections, strengthening the case for a reassessment of whether the region’s safeguards for lawful speech on campus are fit for purpose.
The newly updated wording at Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University could be used to punish vast swathes of lawful speech, including for “bringing discredit” to the university, “liking” content deemed “inappropriate”, or being “offensive” about people.
Ulster University’s policy – breaches of which can lead to disciplinary action – states that “any communication” by a student “in a personal capacity through social media” must not “bring discredit to the university in any way”, including by “making/sharing defamatory or offensive comments” or even by “liking” content deemed “inappropriate”.
Queen’s policy is similar, but instead of applying to all social-media activity by all students, it is limited to “students who are using social media in any way which relates to, or can be associated with, the university or its activities or the student’s affiliation to the university”. The policy states that students must not post anything “inappropriate” or “profane”, and must not “express or support sexist, racist, sectarian, homophobic or transphobic views” or engage in the “dissemination of misleading information”.
Under its policy, Queen’s may order a student to remove content, and can take disciplinary action.
Speaking to the Belfast News Letter, CAF Director Edward Skidelsky said that while universities are right to expect high standards of conduct, “far too many behaviour codes – particularly those built around vague and highly contestable terms such as ‘transphobia’ or ‘offensive’ speech – drift far beyond what UK law actually requires”.
England’s new Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 has pushed universities to tighten their rules, and the Office for Students (OfS) is clear that over-broad social-media policies of this kind are incompatible with the duty to secure free speech within the law. In its latest guidance, for instance, the regulator stresses that complying with England’s new free speech regime may sometimes require universities to take “negative steps” – in other words, to refrain from imposing speech-restrictive rules in the first place.
To make the point, it offers a hypothetical example not dissimilar in spirit to Ulster’s “bring discredit” provision: a college adopts a social-media policy requiring staff not to post material “unnecessarily critical” of the institution, then investigates an academic and issues a formal warning for a lawful post. The OfS concludes that both the policy, and the action taken under it, are likely to breach the provider’s duty to protect lawful speech and academic freedom.
Unfortunately, while the wording in both the Ulster and Queen’s policies would be unlikely to pass muster under England’s new regime, Northern Ireland has no equivalent framework.
As Dr Skidelsky says: “This should be a wake-up call for the region’s political leaders: it’s time to take a serious look at whether the protections for lawful speech on campus are fit for purpose.”
This article forms part of the Committee for Academic Freedom’s monitoring of developments in higher education across the Anglosphere. To receive monthly updates and analysis on cases affecting academic freedom, click the link and subscribe to our newsletter.