Cornell University: Student Punished for Posting “Zionists must die” on Social Media

On January 11, 2024, Cornell University announced that a student “will be held fully accountable and appropriately sanctioned” for her “heinous” and “hateful” social media post saying “Zionists must die.” However, Cornell’s free speech policies explicitly protect offensive or hateful speech, and the university did not show how the post falls into any category of unprotected speech. FIRE wrote Cornell January 17 calling on the university to refrain from punishing students for passionate and protected political rhetoric on public issues.