ITS flexes muscles with site blockages

Information Technology Services has blocked three student-created websites from the UNC network this year — a potential cause of concern for free speech advocates.

As of Oct. 15, ITS officials have prevented access to alertcarolina.com, bevii.com and ConnectCarolina 2.0 from UNC’s network to protect its computing systems from future security threats.

Robert Shibley, senior vice president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, said this is worrisome.

“Generally speaking, in a free society shutting access in a free domain is a bad idea,” he said. “Particularly, when you’re a university, it sets a dangerous precedent.”

Shibley thinks that a university’s first priority is to educate students, and that blocking websites should be a last resort. He said Americans should not forget that in these instances, a government agency is shutting down a website on a free domain.

“My main concern when it comes to these situations is that universities in the name of promoting security or ITS, should be careful not to get in the way of student innovation,” said Shibley.

In August, UNC junior Winston Howes launched ConnectCarolina 2.0 as a modified version of ConnectCarolina. Six hundred students provided the site with their Onyens and passwords.

ITS officials said they blocked the website because students gave their personal information to a site that wasn’t under the UNC network and potentially not secure.

“A part of what was happening with ConnectCarolina 2.0 was some work to try to build a site that performs additional functions,” said ITS specialist Kevin Lanning. “ITS has since been working to assess feasible improvements for the official ConnectCarolina in response.”

Howes said he now understands why his site was shut down and is glad he can work with ITS.

“When the site was first shut down, I would have said that the incident discourages student innovation,” he said. “However, I think that the situation can actually be flipped in such a way that encourages more student innovation.”

Another incident occurred last week with student-created Bevii — a mobile, location-based social network.

To promote the new app, Bevii co-founder and sophomore Taylor Robinette emailed 17,000 students mimicking an Alert Carolina message.

“We were brainstorming ideas, looking for slightly humorous ways to engage UNC students and get their attention about Bevii while poking fun at another social media site that college students don’t use much anymore,” said Robinette.

Lanning said ITS a its facility at the edge of campus with networking capabilities to block dangerous sites. While this strategy works to stop people from accessing such sites on the UNC network, off-campus students remain unaffected.

“We all take it very seriously. The idea that Alert Carolina could be used for sending commercial spam really concerns people,” said Lanning. “When it comes to the safety of people, that’s the most important priority of all.”

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