【"she responded with a crude gesture suggesting auto-eroticism."】

Freedom of speech and "she responded with a crude gesture suggesting auto-eroticism."thought are, in theory, what drives academia -- and a new website is drawing criticism for threatening those virtues.

Professor Watchlist rounds up the names of scholars from around the U.S. it deems "radical" and places them on a so-called watch list with their photographs and identities listed alongside their names.

Created by the conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA, it says its purpose is to "expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom." But those allegations are often thinly supported and over simplified, citing biased sources like political blogs run by conservative organizations and opinion pieces.

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While a few listings are better supported, the reality remains that Professor Watchlist mostly shames academics for their political beliefs in an effort to shield students from instructors they may disagree with, or possibly learn from.

SEE ALSO: Columbia University suspends wrestling team for racist, sexist text messages

Since it launched on Monday, critics have said that such a "watchlist" threatens academic freedom — a liberty once defined by Albert Einstein as "the right to search for truth and to publish and teach what one holds to be true."

The website refutes those claims. Its organizers say it's actually helping conservative students by giving them a handy guide (like ratemyprofessors.com) so they don't have to come in contact with instructors who they believe are too radical in regards to their own views.

"It’s no secret that some of America’s college professors are totally out of line," Charlie Kirk, founder and executive director of the nonprofit, wrote in a blog post. "Turning Point USA is saying enough is enough. It’s time we expose these professors."

Crazy radical professor at your school?

CHECK OUT "Professor WatchList"https://t.co/ONVzq70vUJ

Submit your professors on the site! pic.twitter.com/H2O8WnfUvW

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) November 21, 2016

So how are people selected to appear on the site? "Professors are chosen based on radical leftist views and bias against students," Matt Lamb, a Turning Point representative, wrote in an email to Mashable. "These are professors whose views chill free speech in classrooms." 

There's a wide spectrum of people on the list, but a majority are featured for things they've said that some conservatives might disagree with, like criticism of Donald Trump or statements supporting gun control.

What kind of statement is "radical" enough to get listed?

"There’s a difference in our opinion between holding generally liberal views and going a step farther," Lamb told Mashableby phone. He gave the example of a professor, Peter Dreier, who once said the NRA has "blood on their hands." That just goes too far, he said. "No one can actually define it, but you know it when you hear it," he added.

By exposing liberal professors who hold what the site's founders deem to be "radical ideas," Lamb said Professor Watchlist can help conservative students when they're picking classes so they know who they're up against, or may want to avoid. He described it as "a guide for students, parents and alumni to know what’s going on inside the classroom."

"What we are seeing with this site is a kind of normalizing of prosecuting professors."

Filtering of academia in this way, though, can run contrary to encouraging free speech and to Turning Point's stated goal of creating a space where all people can express their views without fear of retribution.

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“What we are seeing with this site is a kind of normalizing of prosecuting professors, shaming professors, defaming professors,” Julio C. Pino, an associate professor of history at Kent State University who is listed on the site told the New York Times.

What if a user actually follows the guidance of Professor Watchlist and avoids the professors whose views he or she disagrees with? What does that do to the free speech inside the classroom Turning Point says it supports?

"It seems to be counterproductive to that," Abdul-Malik Ryan, a university employee also listed on the site, told Mashable. "That doesn’t seem to be consistent with the goals they state to have, which is to promote discourse in academia and have students have good experiences regardless of their own political views."

It's a notion Lamb brushed off. "I’m not really concerned about that," he said. "Almost all the professors on the list – you wouldn’t even feel open to debating them."

Singling out people with certain political beliefs and placing them on a watch list can lead to targeting or harassment by political opponents, internet trolls, or worse. Ryan said he’s gotten some hate mail but, more than that, warm messages of support. Still, he said, the harassment he, his wife and their family faced after a Breitbartpost the watch list linked to, left them feeling “threatened.”

“You don’t know what these people will do,” Ryan said.

But the potential for people using the site to resort to violence or harassment against those listed is something its creators disavow. “All the information’s already out there,” Lamb said. “We oppose all forms of violence. We just want this information out there.”

A closer look at the 'watchlist'

Most of the people listed are left-leaning on a wide spectrum of issues. There are those who are pro-choice, advocates of racial justice, environmental activists, and socialists. The collection of issues, and the reasons people are listed, are inconsistent enough that it's difficult to determine who will be featured next. And while most are politically liberal, there's a small handful of outliers, too.

One is Melissa Click, a former University of Missouri professor charged with assault for harassing a student journalist at campus protest, saying, "I need some muscle over here." Another is Holocaust denier Arthur Butz, a Northwestern University engineering professor. He confirmed to Mashablehe denies the Holocaust but declined to comment further.

Each scholar's listing is accompanied by a photo, their identity condensed to a few lines about what makes them "radical," and a link containing supposedly incriminating information, often from college blogs, conservative websites, Fox Newseditorials, and Breitbartposts.

A blurb from the conservative website Breitbartwas used as evidence to show the radicalism of Abdul-Malik Ryan. It's placed below a photograph and three-line bio about Ryan, a Muslim man who works as the director of religious diversity at DePaul University. However, he's not a professor and does not teach students as part of his job, as he explained to Mashable. The post was a collection of Ryan's tweets about being Muslim and his political views.

I have bad news for all the GOPers who want to ban Muslims from entering the US...already a few million of us here..and we love to have kids

— Abdul-Malik Ryan (@chaplainabunoor) March 16, 2016

GOP candidates do not mention Israel to get support of Jewish voters, rather of a few ultra right donors and white nationalist Islamophobes

— Abdul-Malik Ryan (@chaplainabunoor) September 17, 2015

On Professor Watchlist, one of the major allegations against Ryan is that he's "written sympathetically" about ISIS. But he says the idea that he identifies or empathizes with terrorists is more than just false. "These are people that are killing people that I love," he told Mashable. "The notion that people could somehow attach me to ISIS or any other extremist group … is really offensive.

"I have no sympathy for ISIS and nothing but disdain for what they stand for and everything they do," he added.

Peter Dreier, a professor at liberal arts institution Occidental College who said the NRA has blood on its hands, was also listed because he campaigned for Obama and has socialist views. A philosophy professor at Santa Monica College was included because she held an event called an “EcoSexual Sextravaganza,” which appeared to be a non-sexual activity held at the beach so students could "marry the ocean." She told Campus Reform(the conservative blog linked on Professor Watchlist) it was meant to "bring about a deeper love for the planet."

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

One professor's listing highlighted the time he dropped the F-bomb during a contentious College Republicans event. Temple University Professor Joseph Schwartz, who has also taught at Harvard, said he had apologized to students for losing his temper.

For his part, Schwartz said he welcomes all ideas inside the classroom. "Anyone who knows my teaching style recognizes that I encourage, nay, beg for, alternative viewpoints to my own to be expressed in class and I try to teach students, regardless of their views, how to express them in the most well-reasoned and defensible manner," he wrote in a Facebook post he emailed to Mashable.

On Professor Watchlist, the actions and words described may vary widely, but one fact remains the same — the academics listed have been publicly targeted for their views. That echoes a problematic history of naming and shaming individuals considered contrarian. As the American Civil Liberties Union has argued: "How much we value the right of free speech is put to its severest test when the speaker is someone we disagree with most."

Topics Politics