Ethyl and Tank, located at 19 E 13th Ave, is a popular spot for Ohio State’s students. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Lantern File Photo

Bad news, Buckeyes.

With popular Instagram accounts posting compromising videos of students recently, those nonconsensually posted have little recourse when it comes to getting them taken down, according to legal and communication experts. 

The Instagram pages @ohiostatechicks, @barstoolohiostate and @infringedosu have posted videos of intoxicated students engaging in public sexual acts and at campus-area bars and parties since August. The pages have around 195,000 followers combined. 

Chad Painter, chair of the Department of Communication at the University of Dayton, said the act of posting a video taken in a public space itself may be lawful, but many of the students in the videos are intoxicated, meaning they cannot consent to being filmed or posted, raising ethical concerns of privacy.

“What is the public service aspect of this?” Painter said. “My guess is that Barstool wouldn’t be able to answer that question, and if you can’t answer that question, you are at best on really shaky ethical grounds. Actually, you’re not on any ethical grounds, but I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt.” 

Although Barstool’s Affiliate Program Agreement states it is the company’s goal to uphold the “highest possible ethical standards,” Amy Schmitz, a professor at Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law, said she doesn’t believe the account fulfills that obligation. 

“As a company, that would be absolutely horrible,” Schmitz said. “[Barstool] can then get sued along with other actions that might happen, especially if they’re violating consumer protections, and especially if it’s a minor. There can be a lot of issues here and that’s why Barstool has very strict obligations of the affiliate.”

Schmitz said she recommends reporting the post to Instagram as a violation of community guidelines and asking the affiliate page to remove it. If the affiliate doesn’t remove it, a complaint can be filed directly to Barstool, which would lead to an investigation of the account according to the Affiliate Program Agreement. 

Despite Schmitz’s guidance, @ohiostatechicks does not seem willing to work with anyone who is uncomfortable seeing themselves on the account. On Aug. 22, it posted on its story that it would not take such posts down. 

“REMINDER: we do not have to take content down, even if it wasn’t submitted by you. [B]efore you do some dumb or embarrassing sh*t in public just remember that almost everyone around you owns a cell phone and will probably record it,” the post stated.

For more information on online rights, Schmitz recommends visiting the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative and Without My Consent.