AUPresses has signed on to a letter from the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), protesting the censorship by Zoom, Facebook, and YouTube of an online roundtable event at San Francisco State University this past summer.
All three platforms refused to livestream the discussion, organized by the university’s Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies program, because it included Leila Khaled, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the US Department of State. The university clearly supported the event, entitled “Whose Narratives? Gender, Justice, and Resistance,” as an exercise of academic freedom and inquiry.
Along with NCAC, we strongly urge Zoom, Facebook, and YouTube to reaffirm their commitments to free expression and to ensure their platforms do not impede intellectual freedom, especially at a time when academic institutions are heavily reliant on virtual learning.