The University of Santo Tomas (UST) will start regulating students from posting on social media criticizing the current blended learning modality.
Guidelines for posting on social media
Different student activist groups are calling out the UST administration to call off their guidelines regarding students posting on social media, says it is a hindrance to the freedom of speech of students. This is after the university’s administration started to require student groups to file for permits and provide drafts before posting via social media.
The new guidelines immediately caught the attention of student activist groups at UST, mainly the Anakbayan, supported by external parties such as the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP). The groups claim that obliging student organizations to filter out the things they will post on social media is against their right for freedom of speech, it is a form of student suppression.
The NUSP calls on the UST administration to call off the mandate and also the CHED to refrain from allowing such guidelines to push through.
At a pandemic like this, we have to have transparency on the issues concerning our country. Restricting student groups from posting on social media won’t help us get there.
Online learning and social media trolls
Social media has been one of the major influencers in sharing news and current events worldwide. Social media is able to deliver news faster and is more accessible. However, one of the disadvantages of having such influence is that a lot of entities are using social media to create fake and misleading news that confuses people and creating chaos.
A lot of social media users are fond of sharing news that is sometimes not well researched and carrying misinformation. The UST administration’s wants to limit the handing out of misinformation by carefully screening any social media posts from school organization carrying the UST name.
At the end of the day, it will be the university’s name that will be persecuted if things go wrong.
