University of Colorado, Boulder: Administration Publicly Announces Inquiry into a Student’s Tweet

On May 6, 2023, an anonymous University of Colorado, Boulder student tweeted at a Twitter user that they are “a jareer who claims to be somali royalty.” The recipient user, who is not a CU Boulder student, responded to the tweet by tagging the university. On May 9, CU Boulder’s official Twitter account wrote that it had reported the Twitter exchange to its Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance. FIRE wrote CU Boulder on May 10 urging it to end its practice of publicly announcing investigations without first looking into the allegations to see if they involve protected speech that thus can’t be punished, as announced investigations chill students’ future speech on topics about which others may complain.