Facebook event pages not a crime, a valuable resource

The article Use of Facebook to prosecute unlikely (SN 4/23) was — aside from the headline — an unbalanced view of a situation with free speech concerns. The four sources were: two MSU law professors, an East Lansing police sergeant and a city attorney. If the Facebook.com event page is being used in the prosecution, why not ask students who used that page about the nature of its content?

Sgt. Scott Wriggelsworth was totally unfounded in suggesting that creating the Facebook page was the equivalent to throwing a bottle or committing any type of crime. Despite the East Lansing Police Department stance, organizing a large-scale social event is not a crime; neither is a corresponding Facebook page. If someone wrote on that event page that they seriously intended to damage a police car or set a trash bin on fire, then that person can be charged.

The Internet is an invaluable resource for interacting, communicating and gathering off-line, and Facebook is one of the prime examples of that. Far too often, students are scared away from using resources allowed to them. If the ELPD can punish posts just for being associated with Cedar Fest, what will stop them from imposing prior restraint on undesirable event pages in the future?

The State News is supposed to be teaching journalism students to act as an independent monitor of power, not as a voice box for any police department. This article was almost as unethical as showing a Cedar Fest video produced by ELPD on the State News Web site.

Nick Meador
second-year journalism master’s student

Published on Monday, May 12, 2008