University of Florida: Administrators Force Student Group to Take Down Instagram Post

In March 2023, the University of Florida chapter of the Association of Latino Professionals for America promoted an event featuring venture capitalist James Fishback, referring to him as the “Head of Global Macroeconomic Investing at Greenlight Capital.” Over a year later, amidst a dispute between Fishback and Greenlight about Fishback’s title, a lawyer for Greenlight demanded UF take down posts referring to Fishback as the firm’s head of macro, which included ALPFA’s post. Rather than stand up for students’ right to free expression, UF administrators bowed to the pressure and ordered ALPFA to remove the post from its Instagram. FIRE wrote UF on August 22, 2024, explaining that it cannot suppress student groups’ expression merely because a third party baselessly threatened the university, and we urged it to commit to protecting those groups’ speech rights in the future. On September 4, UF acknowledged that the demand for ALPFA to remove the content was contrary to university policy and affirmed groups’ right to control their content free from university interference.