However, one free speech proponent disagrees rhetoric crossed line
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has shut down a student group’s pro-Palestinian magazine due to “several troubling statements.”
In an email to the group, school administrators banned the students from distributing the magazine on campus. Administrators stated “that if the publication continues to be distributed there, it must remove all affiliation with MIT,” the Washington Examiner reported.
The school specifically raised concerns about an article in the October issue that student Prahlad Iyengar, the magazine’s editor, authored.
The piece, titled “On Pacivism,” critiques pacifist movements and argues the pro-Palestinian movement must “begin wreaking havoc,” Inside Higher Ed reported.
“The article makes several troubling statements that could be interpreted as a call for more violent or destructive forms of protest at MIT,” school leaders stated in their email. “Numerous community members have expressed concern for their safety and well-being after learning of your article.”
Further, they stated the article violated a school policy that prohibits “threats, intimidation, coercion, and other conduct that can be reasonably, objectively construed to threaten or endanger the mental or physical health or safety of any person.”
Students are no longer distributing the magazine and “Iyengar is facing disciplinary action,” Inside Higher Ed reported.
Iyengar, a Ph.D. student, had been penalized for his involvement in a pro-Palestinian demonstration last spring, and his disciplinary case was ongoing when the article was published. The new charges will be incorporated into his ongoing conduct case.
The school also took issue with some images in the magazine, as they included symbols of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S.
“The inclusion of symbolism from a U.S. designated terrorist organization containing violent imagery in a publication by an MIT-recognized student group is deeply concerning,” the administrators stated.
Students launched the magazine earlier this year to publish “revolutionary thought on campus.”
“We believe that writing and art are among the most powerful tools for conducting a revolution,” the first issue of the Written Revolution states.
One free speech expert with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression told Inside Higher Ed that the student’s speech is protected and cannot be considered a threat.
“When we’re talking about fears of inciting violence, it needs to be calling not just for some kind of illegal action, simply construed—it needs to be calling for imminent lawless action,” said Dominic Coletti, a campus advocacy program officer for FIRE.
“It really does have to be directed at a group of people who can immediately do the thing you’re telling them to do. Your readers just can’t do that. They’re not sitting in front of you,” he said.
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