A year after protests at UC Santa Barbara surrounding Israel-Palestine began, students and community members packed the courthouse over a hearing regarding a search warrant. If granted, it would give police access to data from every person who engaged with campus-based Instagram accounts that posted about pro-Palestine activism.

UCPD filed for a search warrant of pro-Palestine Instagram accounts to aid in their investigation of the Girvetz Hall occupation. Maddy Fangio / Daily Nexus.

On Sept. 11, the UCSB UC Police Department (UCPD) filed a search warrant to obtain access to accounts @UCSBliberatedzone and @saygenocideucsb to aid in their investigation of the Girvetz Hall occupation by pro-Palestine student activists earlier this year.

Several pro-Palestine activists took over Girvetz Hall from June 10-12 and left graffiti, rocks, body bags and red acrylic paint imitating red blood to create mock casualty scenes in classrooms, leaving messages like “Free Palestine” on the walls. The occupation caused scheduled finals in the hall to be canceled or relocated. Police raided the building in the early morning hours of June 12, but made no arrests.

Protestors created mock casualty scenes within the Girvetz hall classrooms. Courtesy of Say Genocide UCSB

The damages cost $45,600, the University claimed in court documents. They allege kidnapping, vandalism, conspiracy, unlawful assembly and trespassing by the occupiers. 

Attorneys Addison Steel and Jennifer Steel — representing an unnamed person potentially impacted by the court’s ruling —  filed to block the warrant on Sept. 25, claiming it lacked probable cause and particularity, according to court documents obtained by the Nexus. They called the warrant “intrusive and unlimited.”

If granted, the warrant would force Meta Platforms, who owns Instagram, to give UCPD access to share archived data, linked accounts, subscriber information and communication content of the accounts. The data includes accounts who commented, liked, shared and viewed the content and their IP addresses. 

This quarter, many campuses are seeing the legal ramifications of the protests. This particular case comes after last spring’s pro-Palestine encampments across California, where over a hundred people, mostly students and faculty members, were arrested. In August, UC President Michael Drake instituted systemwide time, place and manner protocols that ban encampments and face masks to conceal one’s identity and enforce a rule for students to remove masks and identify themselves if asked. 

Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Pauline Maxwell heard arguments for the case in a packed courthouse on Nov. 22. Addison Steel made arguments on behalf of the defendant in court, and attorneys Jonathan Miller and Anthony Davis represented the University.

Miller opened the arguments, claiming that the accounts took responsibility for the incident. He said @UCSBliberatedzone called for people to mobilize and move toward Girvetz Hall in preparation for a police response, and that @saygenocideucsb posted photos of the graffitied classroom on the date of the occupation.

On the day of the occupation, the saygenocide account called themselves an “autonomous group of students, workers and community members” and that they had “taken Girvetz Hall.” In some posts, they ask followers to show support and reiterate demands made by the encampment.

Miller also said when the occupants entered the building, they “caused fear and anxiety” among janitorial staff. He said one staff member hid in a closet and occupiers “surrounded” a staff member to make him leave the building, per the kidnapping charge. 

Steel argued that the janitor hiding in the closet or being made to leave the building does not constitute kidnapping, as it would require someone to be moved from a place of greater safety to lesser safety. 

“Kidnapping wouldn’t even make it past a preliminary hearing; it’s so lacking,” Steel said. “There is no allegation that anyone moved somebody.”

The posts don’t say anything to claim responsibility for the alleged damages and the photo of the classroom “appears to be” from the outside looking in, Steel continued. The police used the photo of the classroom @saygenocideucsb posted on their account as a basis for their connection to the alleged crimes.

Davis refuted that the takeover was “a concerted effort by a number of individuals who clearly worked together to make this happen.” During the occupation, the account posted the events of the incident in real-time. 

The scope of data the warrant requests is necessary for police who may be “looking for a needle through a haystack,” he said. UCPD, he continued, would discard collateral information about people who looked at the posts.

Steel called the UCPD allegations of burglary “silly,” since there was no allegation that anything was stolen and insufficient evidence that the account shows intent. He said the warrant’s scope has worrying effects.

“The idea that UCPD is going to … decide what’s relevant without any judicial oversight,” Steel said. “I would call that the definition of overly broad.” 

NorCal American Civil Liberties Union attorney Jacob Snow, who filed an amicus brief – an argument from someone not part of the case — to block the warrant, said the warrant could have a “chilling effect” on student activism. He added that the posts lack sufficient evidence that the posters committed the crimes or conspired to.

“California has a rich history of student activism,” Snow said. “School speech should have the utmost protection.” 

In his final remarks, Miller asserted that the case does not concern the First Amendment — since the occupiers made an “organized effort” to take over the building and it “was not a peaceful protest.” 

Steel finished the arguments, calling the warrant UCPD’s “fishing expedition” that would put likers and commenters “in danger of having police show up and question them, which is inappropriate.”

Maxwell said she was concerned that the warrant was too broad and recommended the counsels meet and “narrow” their issues over the scope of the warrant before the next court hearing.

In the meantime, UCSB’s community continues to have protests concerning Israel and Palestine. Groups like Academics for Justice in Palestine and Students for Justice in Palestine regularly convene for poetry readings and demonstrations in front of the library. 

“These attempts at surveillance and criminalization are a direct threat to free speech, academic freedom, and digital privacy and represent an unsettling attempt by the UC Regents, UCPD, and UCSB administration to repress and intimidate students from further organizing on campus,” the UCSB Liberated Zone students said in a press release. 

“These legal battles are used to suppress students’ movement on campuses in order to extinguish the pressure we have built. We must resist.”

This legal discourse is one among several ongoing lawsuits concerning free-speech that civil liberties advocates have been pushing against in the aftermath of campus pro-Palestine encampments. The Santa Barbara County District Attorney hasn’t pressed charges against the five arrested UCSB encampment protestors.

The outcome of the warrant hearing may set a precedent for further investigations of protest-related incidents on campus. The next hearing will be on Dec. 20 at 9 a.m.

The next court hearing will be Dec. 20 at the Santa Barbara County Superior Courthouse. Maddy Fangio / Daily Nexus

The Nexus will continue reporting on this topic as more information becomes available.

Lizzy Rager

Lizzy Rager (she/her) is the Lead News Editor for the 2024-25 school year. She can be reached at lizzyrager@dailynexus.com