A prestigious college has settled with a student after they rejected the teenager’s application for following Infowars host Alex Jones on Twitter.
The unnamed student’s lawyer, Bradley Shear, told College Fix that instead of being questioned about his academic achievements, his client was grilled about his transgression of following Jones online.
“My client had never ‘liked’ or re-tweeted any of Mr. Jones’ content,” said the attorney. “His alleged ‘transgression’ was that he followed Mr. Jones on Twitter. That was it,” Shear told College Fix.
Shear has not named the student or the college, as they agreed to a settlement to avoid bad publicity.
The admissions director was reportedly a Democratic Socialist who follows far-left groups on social media.
“While I am not a listener or supporter of Mr. Jones, his audience has every right to watch his videos and listen to him and connect with him online since we live in a free country,” Shear wrote in a blog post. “Unfortunately, some college admissions officials believe that applicants who connect with him online regardless of whether they believe Mr. Jones’ theories should not be provided an opportunity to attend the country’s most prestigious higher education institutions.”
Shear has another client who was deprived of a $25,000 scholarship offer for simply liking a post on Facebook regarding the 2016 election. He warns that this type of social media weaponization is commonplace.
