Georgia Tech’s removal of student journalist’s account of training center reporting raises free speech concern

By John Ruch

Georgia Tech has removed from its website a student journalist’s first-person account of critical reporting on Atlanta’s controversial public safety training center, raising issues of free speech and academic freedom.

Alex Ip, the student who founded and edits the independent news site The Xylom, says the Georgia Tech communications department ordered his April 17 post to be heavily revised or it would be deleted altogether. Blair Meeks, Georgia Tech’s assistant vice president of external communications, did not deny that but indicated the post ran afoul of an IT policy and a law that makes the site the official voice of the school and the State of Georgia. However, the basis for that interpretation is unclear and the website in question contains many other personal commentaries and third-party information.

Ip is an environmental engineering undergrad who created The Xylom as an outgrowth of a science blog inspired by his classwork. Next month, he is headed to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a grad student in science writing, in part on the strength of his Xylom work. Ip says he was invited to submit a post about his reporting on the training center by “Serve-Learn-Sustain” (SLS), a campus-wide program where students get practical experience in helping to “create sustainable communities.” He has worked with SLS as a student.

Ip’s commentary was posted on a section of the SLS website and also was distributed in an SLS newsletter. The post described how his coursework led to an interest in the training center controversy and its environmental and social justice issues. It specifically noted an article he wrote that fact-checked City of Atlanta claims about the project, which he believes led a press release with such claims to be quietly “scrubbed” from the City website. “You don’t do that unless you know that you are on shaky factual and moral ground,” he wrote of the City’s press release deletion, adding that the action “has only made me more motivated to continue to cover ‘Cop City’….”

Ip says SLS published his commentary unedited. But at 10:52 that night, he began getting emails from SLS staff saying that Georgia Tech’s communications department had concerns. One concern was that the post make it clear that Ip’s comments were not those of SLS. But, according to staff emails Ip quoted to SaportaReport, the communications department further wanted revisions to the language by the following day and for a direct link to the Xylom article to be removed. Otherwise, the emails said, the post would be deleted entirely.

“In the email, it was explicitly stated the only other option was to remove the post from the Georgia Tech website,” said Ip. “I was under the impression there was no other alternative … Either I change it or the post gets magically disappeared.”

He said he agreed to various proposed changes to protect the SLS staff because he didn’t blame them for the communications department pressure, and because there wasn’t really a choice anyway.

The new version removed virtually all of Ip’s detailed, first-person account, replacing it with much less colorful language in only three sentences. No longer describing his fact-checking article and its possible impact, the new version said only that Ip was “digging deep into the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center controversy, including how it influences and impacts both people and nature.” The original post linked to two Xylom stories about the training center – including the fact-checking piece – while the revised version linked only to Xylom’s “About” page. The headline was changed, too. The original said, “Fact Checking the City of Atlanta’s Claims on Cop City.” The revised version: “Georgia Tech Student Alex Ip Leads Student-Led Nonprofit Newsroom, Most Recently Focusing on the Atlanta Public Training Center” [sic].

Meanwhile, Ip went on Twitter and posted before-and-after screenshots that called out the changes, which other users quickly decried as censorship. At some point, the post was altered again to include a direct link to the fact-checking article.

SLS Director Jennifer Hirsch did not respond to a comment request beyond saying she forwarded the inquiry to the communications department.

Georgia Tech is a state school to which the free-speech guarantees of the U.S. and Georgia constitutions apply. It also ascribes to principles of academic freedom, with its website mission statement declaring, “We protect the freedom of all members of our community to ask questions, seek truth, and express their views.”

Meeks, the Georgia Tech assistant vice president, did not immediately answer questions regarding who ordered the changes to Ip’s SLS post and why. In a written statement, he gave a lengthy declaration of Georgia Tech’s commitment to free speech and expression. He also emphasized that Georgia Tech did not order changes to Ip’s original Xylom story, though no one appears to have made such an accusation.

Regarding the SLS post revisions, Meeks indicated two rationales.

“Information shared on Georgia Tech websites is, by law, equivalent to being the voice of Georgia Tech and by extension, the State of Georgia,” Meeks claimed. “As such, we must be vigilant that content on our websites reflects Georgia Tech’s official views, and we must distinguish institutional speech from individual speech.  While we remain committed to being an open campus community that invites the free sharing and exchange of ideas, we must reserve Georgia Tech’s online resources for promoting our mission and values.”

Meeks did not immediately clarify what law he was referring to and how it relates to constitutional and academic rights to challenge state opinions.

Meeks also cited a school Information Technology policy about the use of third-party content. He did not immediately clarify how that applies, either. But part of it relates to the removal of content that did not go through a department’s “required review and approval process” or that violates overall online content policies. “Ultimate authority for the approval or removal of content on Institution Online Resources rests with the President,” adds the policy.

“In accordance with policy, it is not appropriate to duplicate the student’s blog post, contents, or parts of it on a Georgia Tech website,” Meeks said.

Regardless, the SLS website continues to contain many other student’s “Reflections” dating back months that include first-person commentary and quotes from third-party materials. Some of the material appears to challenge state political positions on other controversial issues, such as a student commentary on systemic racism.

A political backdrop for Georgia Tech’s move is increasing threats to free speech within the university system and to the “Defend the Atlanta Forest” protest movement against the training center, which protesters have dubbed “Cop City.”

Georgia Tech is part of the University System of Georgia, which has been under political pressure from Republican legislators and administrators. Among recent moves was making it easier to fire tenured professors and pressure against the teaching of critical race theory.

The training center protests have been targeted with controversial domestic terrorism charges, the removal of a skeptical member from an official advisory committee, lawyers attempting to demand internal records of advocacy journalists, and the arrests or detentions of journalists and protesters that are spawning lawsuits alleging retaliation for free-speech activity.

Ip says he believed his post matched Georgia Tech’s mission of public service and promoting information. He said that, at least for now, he does not plan on attempting to file a complaint or challenge the post changes. He said that on Twitter, Georgia Tech’s move has had the Streisand effect of drawing more attention than his original story did. And he plans to continue to follow the training center story from MIT with the hopes of one day returning to write about environmental issues in the South.

“It is pretty hilarious how this has turned out,” said Ip. “I am not concerned about myself. I am more concerned about this project and the remaining academic expression and freedom of speech.”