E-Paper
IIIT-Allahabad bans Facebook access on campus
The Indian Institute of Information Technology-Allahabad (IIIT-A) has barred its students and staff from accessing social networking site Facebook. K Sandeep Kumar reports.
The Indian Institute of Information Technology-Allahabad (IIIT-A) has barred its students and staff from accessing social networking site Facebook.
The action comes after complaints of threaten and abuse on the social networking site by three of its students.
“The restriction has been imposed with effect from March 1 and will remain in force for an unspecified period,” said a notice issued by dean (student affairs) Prof RC Tripathi.
The premier institute has also warned its students against maintaining web blogs. Insisting that offensive messages on social networking sites and blogs by students are detrimental to the institute's image, the IIIT-A has asked students not to blog and post offensive material as they violate the code of conduct of the institute.
The notice, also sent on emails to teachers, students and other staff members, says that it has been a matter of concern due to the offensive postings against students, faculty members and administration by some of IIIT-A's own students.
It also listed names and batches of the three students against whom specific complaints had been received in this regard.
While a BTech (IT) 2011 student has been accused of putting up posts threatening a girl student of biomedical engineering, two BTech (IT) 2010 batch students have been charged with using "abusive language".
Meanwhile, the ban on Facebook has not gone down well with both the students as well as faculty members.
Though they agree that anyone violating the code of conduct should be punished, majority of them maintain that banning all and sundry for actions of a few was simply unfair.
