VA school district seeks 'social media listening' on 'hate speech' to deter 'negative actions' towards staff

Parents in Fairfax, Va., protest two controversial books being displayed in the holiday reading section of school libraries. Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) is seeking a social media monitoring service that will track hate speech as well as purported harassment and threats against employees, students, or racial groups – resurfacing concerns about First Amendment rights and school safety. A request for proposal (RFP), which closed last week, showed the Virginia school district offering $200,000 to "detect help deter any negative actions or consequences coming from social media which may be directed to racial groups or any student or teacher within FCPS." Under technical and functional requirements, the school district lists "Automatically classify aliases, usernames, emails websites, etc."; "Visually identify relationships and connections between persons"; "Save search queries and set alerts for active listening"; and "False positive reduction with embedded violence language classifier and metadata optimization technology." LINCOLNIA, VIRGINIA - AUGUST 23: Masked students arrive to the first day of class at Glasgow Middle School in Lincolnia, Virginia, on Monday, August 23, 2021, the first day back to school for the Fairfax County school district.