Student leads website protest

A student at the University of York is leading a call to save the controversial website FitFinder, which encourages students to post raunchy descriptions of attractive contemporaries spotted around campuses.
By The Newsroom
Published 2nd Jun 2010, 01:23 BST
Updated 2nd Jun 2010, 01:23 BST

Scott Bryan, a final-year politics undergraduate, has formed a Facebook group defending the website which was shut down last week and calling for its reinstatement.

FitFinder was condemned by womens' groups and universities nationwide before being forced offline by pressure from University College London (UCL).

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"I started the campaign because I was shocked at the action to take the website down. I want more people to be aware of this situation, and get the website back online. They've stopped something that they have no control over, and that's not right," said Mr Bryan.

"I wanted to see what I could do about it. Once it started, I found that so many other people shared my anger, and to go from zero to 2,000 followers in a few days is great news," he added.

FitFinder's creator, 21-year-old UCL undergraduate Rich Martell has already been fined 300 after being accused of damaging his university's reputation, and was threatened with expulsion before closing the website.

Mr Bryan was approached by Mr Martell to lead the protest after defending the website in his university newspaper column.

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A York University spokesperson declined to comment on either FitFinder or Mr Bryan's campaign, but said that the University "has a duty of care towards students and staff, and will take action on harassment and bullying."

Related topics:Facebook