Investigation of 'inappropriate' tweet concluded

Southeast Missouri State University announced Tuesday it has completed its investigation of last week's incident involving an "inappropriate and unauthorized post" from the @GoSoutheast Twitter account, but did not give any details.

The controversial tweet posted Friday linked to a photo of two half-naked young women in a bathroom instead of leading viewers to track results.

"Appropriate action has been taken to ensure such occurrences will not happen in the future," according to a statement from the athletics department. "Additionally, a review of the athletics department and university social media policy and procedures will be accomplished."

Jeff Harmon, executive director of university communications and marketing, said, "As previously stated, we will conduct a review of our social media policies and continue to further educate students, staff and faculty on the proper use of social media.

"This incident involves personnel and therefore further statements regarding any action taken will not be made," Harmon said.

Asked whether the university felt it had violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, Harmon said "no." FERPA is a federal law that generally prohibits the improper disclosure of personally identifiable information derived from education records, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

The department defines the records as those that contain information directly related to a student and that are maintained by an educational agency or institution or by a party acting for the agency or institution.

Other questions -- how many people had access to the Twitter account at the time the posting occurred, what policies will or have been changed, what action was taken, whether anyone was fired, whether it was a student or an employee who made a mistake, and why he or she had access to the image -- were not answered, or were met with "no comment."

Cape Girardeau Police Department spokesman Darin Hickey said Twitter can be activated from multiple platforms, whether it's a mobile or desktop device. It would have to be determined who had access to the account, what platform was used, whether any devices were set to auto sign-in and whether other people had access to those accounts.

There's also the question of whether the university Twitter account was hacked. Nine months to a year ago, the police department's own Twitter account was misused when someone tweeted some weight loss information. Now, Hickey said, the department is "very diligent" in making sure all social media is logged off and proper precautions are placed on passwords and access to those passwords.

Kirby Plessas, president of Plessas Experts Network in Washington, D.C., a firm that specializes in investigations for Internet and user privacy, said how long it takes to figure out where a tweet originates depends on the user.

If it was an official account in a college athletics department, for example, Plessas said its location most likely would be turned off. If that's the case, the only way to find out where a tweet came from is to contact Twitter and probably get a court order. "Because Twitter is not going to violate user privacy without a court order, unless it's something dire," Plessas said.

However, she said, people do forget to turn off the Twitter location.

The women in the photo are Southeast student athletes, according to a source close to one of them. The source said the photo was taken earlier this month while the two were getting changed for the evening. It first wound up on Deadspin, a national website that bills itself as having sports news and commentary with a humorous slant.

The question of how the photo wound up on the official Twitter profile of Redhawks athletics has not been answered.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

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