University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Removal of Student’s Parody Website from University-Hosted Service

On February 1, 2019, FIRE wrote to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to contest the removal of a student-created website that criticized the university’s historical treatment of race-related issues. The student created the parody website “UNC Anti-Racist Jeopardy” using web.unc.edu, a university-provided service enabling students and faculty to publish their own websites. The student denied the university’s request that she take down the site, and was shortly after informed that it violated web.unc.edu’s terms and conditions because it was a “personal project.” However, as FIRE’s letter pointed out, UNC Chapel Hill allowed numerous other sites that were clearly “personal” in nature to remain while targeting “UNC Anti-Racist Jeopardy.” After FIRE’s letter, the university restored the site.