The University of California Police Department issued a search warrant on Sept. 24 for the Instagram account of UC Santa Barbara Liberated Zone, the autonomous group that operated the pro-Palestine encampment last spring. In an Instagram post yesterday, the Liberated Zone called for community members to appear at a court hearing on Nov. 22 to support blocking the warrant.
From May 1 to June 23, the Liberated Zone encampment stood at the lawn between North Hall, also known as Malcolm X Hall, and the UCSB Library. Police officers dispersed the encampment and arrested five individuals at 1:20 a.m. on June 23.
The encampment demanded the University divest from military contractors, academically boycott Israel, protect free speech, name and acknowledge violence and reinvest toward undergraduate resources, including a Palestinian studies department, for them to willfully disband.
Maddy Fangio / Daily Nexus
The University of California Police Department (UCPD) issued the search warrant for the Instagram accounts of the UCSB Liberated Zone, which promoted the encampment’s activities and remained active after the encampment’s dispersal, and the Instagram account of Say Genocide UCSB, the autonomous group responsible for the occupation of Girvetz Hall on June 10.
The warrant is in response to a criminal investigation on the Girvetz Hall occupation, UCSB Media Relations Manager Kiki Reyes said in an email statement to the Nexus.
“The University of California has a long-standing commitment to academic freedom, free speech and expression, and the right to civil protest. The warrant is part of an ongoing criminal investigation into the unlawful occupation of the Girvetz building. The court is currently reviewing the matter, and the University looks forward to responding to the court,” Reyes said.
Courtesy of UCSB Liberated Zone
Say Genocide UCSB occupied Girvetz Hall on June 10 with the intent to disrupt scheduled finals, forcing exams to be relocated or rescheduled. The protestors covered the classrooms and area between the hall and The Arbor with fake blood, fake bodies and signage, calling for the University to name the situation in Gaza a genocide, according to their Instagram.
That night, over 40 officers equipped with riot gear from UCPD and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office lined the outside of Girvetz Hall, warning potential occupants to exit before entering the building at 2:07 a.m. There appeared to be no occupants remaining in the building at that time and no arrests were made.
Courtesy of Say Genocide UCSB
According to a Nov. 20 UCSB Liberated Zone Instagram statement, anyone who has interacted with either accounts by posting, liking or commenting “is at risk of having their personal information exposed to the police.”
UCSB Liberated Zone is being represented by Addison Steele of Steele & Voss Attorneys at Law, who have filed a motion to block the search warrant on their behalf. A court hearing for the motion is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 22 at the Santa Barbara County Superior Court. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California is supporting the Liberated Zone’s case by filing an amicus brief, or a brief written by outside experts to offer insight to the court.
“The warrant seeks expansive access to the personal information of anyone that authored the pages, posted on the pages, commented on the pages, or even ‘liked’ the page. It may very well include the personal information of those that merely saw the pages,” a Steele & Voss press release read.
UCSB Liberated Zone said the warrant was a “direct threat to free speech, academic freedom, and digital privacy,” and condemned the University’s attempt to “intimidate” students out of their right to organize on campus, according to their statement. They also expressed dissent against the $1.3 million UCSB spent — according to LA Times reporting — on protest response and surveillance.
“It is outrageous that UCSB is doubling down on its expensive and egregious militarized response to a nonviolent action by seeking dragnet surveillance that targets so many in the UCSB community,” the Instagram statement read.
The Liberated Zone sent their statement to UCSB student email addresses from a protected address. They called for community members to appear at court tomorrow in support of blocking the warrant.
“Since the beginning, community support has been our biggest asset. The UC administration’s attempt to violate our privacy on this communications platform is part of their broader effort to intimidate students and suppress activism demanding divestment from Israel and from weapons manufacturing,” the statement read. “Your presence supports potentially impacted individuals and helps demonstrate the warrant’s broad impact to our community.”
The Nexus will continue reporting on this topic as more information becomes available. Email the Nexus with news updates at news@dailynexus.com.
expel and prosecute to the fullest those involved. They are criminals and terrorized campus
what is your affiliation with ucsb?
Alumi and staff.
nice
are you affiliated with ucsb?
@anon – surely you are a hasbara bot covering for a criminal, terrorist, apartheid and racist regime.
agree – they don’t even sound like they are a ucsb student or worker. I noticed bot like comments such as theirs when Nexus was covering the encampment last year.
free palestine.
Just because you dont agree with them doesnt make them bots. The destruction of UC property should be prosecuted- do you disagree?
this isn’t about prosecuting the destruction of property. this is about protecting digital privacy rights.
ucpd may continue their investigation if they please, but they should do it without getting into Instagram.
They should get into Instagram but not for everything. they should be able to ID the owners and main participants posts but not everyone who viewed it. the warrant is over reaching agreed but the yes it is about destruction of property thats what led to the search warrant. A causes to B you cant remove A and say its only about B
So confidently wrong. Cant even understand that people have different points of view.
So disappointing from our current student body.
I do understand that people have different points of view. however, your pov is quite extreme, calling those students “terrorists” and that they should be expelled. Have you taken a moment to stop clutching your pearls and listen to **their** pov? If not, your critique about understanding different pov is hypocritical.
Taking over campus destroying public property is extreme scaring the staff and terrorizing campus is extreme. Me labeling it as extreme is not extreme. I understand their POV but with the building take over and damage i firmly disagree
Wooooow, the blows from UCSB, the UCPD, and literally every police and sheriff’s department that’s been involved with this just keep getting lower and lower, don’t they? Like, even IF anything in Giretz Hall or elsewhere on UCSB’s property had been seriously damaged, that still wouldn’t merit the police literally rooting through the entire Internet presence and personal information of everyone who was involved in creating or posting the social media content that’s opposed the genocide (and yes, it IS in fact a genocide) in Gaza, let alone everyone who’s so much as LIKED or even (unintentionally) SEEN it. At… Read more »
This looks awesome