A publication run by conservative students at the University of North Carolina is partially back online after its website was hacked and one of its brand new distribution boxes vandalized.
On April 28, a day before the Carolina Review was scheduled to publicly release its final issue of the academic year, a staffer passing by one of the never-before-used magazine boxes on campus observed that someone had written “racist” on it in black ink.
Hours later, a hacker deleted years worth of articles from the magazine’s website and posted a vulgar message under the name of editor-in-chief Bryson Piscitelli reading, “Nazi scum f— off.”
“The message was pretty clear,” Piscitelli, who is in his second year, told the Washington Examiner in an interview on Wednesday. “It was telling us to leave, to stop publishing.”
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Piscitelli said he thinks the incidents reflect the prevailing liberal attitudes on college campuses, which he said are hostile to a diversity of viewpoints.
“The phrase that I’ve said to everyone that I stick to is, it really is as bad as you think it is, if not worse,” he said.
“This stuff is not surprising to me,” Piscitelli said, adding that when members of the magazine’s staff were installing the new distribution boxes the Saturday before, he thought it inevitable that they would be vandalized.
“We just kind of knew, if not now, at the very least, someone is going to have a meltdown that these things exist,” Piscitelli said, adding, “We couldn’t even get the first mags in.”
“That’s just how it is on college campuses now,” he said.
University police have begun an investigation into the incidents, and the university condemned “vandalism and rhetoric that discourages students from speaking freely on campus” in an April 30 tweet naming the Carolina Review.
“#UNC strives to foster an environment where everyone, regardless of identity, background or perspective, can enjoy their right to free expression — especially our student press — and their sense of safety and belonging,” the university also said.
Earlier this week, the @CarolinaReview’s website was hacked, its content vandalized, and vile language was left as digital graffiti. #UNC condemns vandalism and rhetoric that discourages students from speaking freely on campus. 1/2
— UNC-Chapel Hill (@UNC) April 30, 2021
The university could not immediately be reached for further comment on Wednesday evening.
Following the university’s tweet, undergraduate student body vice president Collyn Smith called the school’s response to the incidents “typical and embarrassing.”
“Prioritizing taking a public stance to support institutions or groups that stand to further systems of violence and oppression against marginalized students while actively not supporting marginalized students??? Go UNC give us nothing,” Smith wrote.
Prioritizing taking a public stance to support institutions or groups that stand to further systems of violence and oppression against marginalized students while actively not supporting marginalized students??? Go UNC give us nothing???
— collyn (@CollynJacob) April 30, 2021
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute, whose Collegiate Network program sponsors conservative and libertarian-leaning student publications on campuses, including Carolina Review, told the Washington Examiner that it stands by the magazine and condemned the vandalism.
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“We are proud to support student publications like the Review that have the courage to stand against cancel culture and promote the values that make America free and prosperous,” Johnny Burtka, president of ISI, said in a statement.
