Spreading our Message: The Power of the 'Twitterverse'

Despite lacking the reach and sweep of the 6.6 million tweeple who frenetically follow and retweet Justin Bieber on Twitter, FIRE's Twitter presence has become one of our most powerful tools in the fight to defend liberty on college campuses.

Because colleges and universities often can't defend in public what they do to students and faculty in private, spreading our issues across the social media is crucial to our success. When our messages go out to our Twitter followers, these tweets have the ability to be spread far and wide—and shared with those that are seeing FIRE's work for the first time. It's a chain reaction. For example, at the end of November, celebrity FIRE supporter Adam Baldwin retweeted our news regarding the "Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act" to his 47,000 followers. Thanks to Baldwin, that's 47,000 people who might not have even known that the bill threatens individual rights on campus.

If you don't already, please take a moment to follow us on Twitter. In 140 characters or less, you'll see just how prevalent free speech violations on campuses are—and, more importantly, you'll be able to help us do something about it. Every tweet (and retweet) counts!